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Australia may increase troops in Iraq after Italian withdrawal
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-03-16 14:40

Australian Prime Minister John Howard has refused to rule out sending more Australian troops to Iraq after Italy's surprise decision to pull its 3,000 soldiers from the war-torn country.

Australia announced last month that it would deploy an additional 450 soldiers to southern Iraq to help protect a Japanese humanitarian project and train Iraqi troops after the withdrawal of 1,400 Dutch military from the area.

Prime Minister John Howard has refused to rule out sending more Australian troops to Iraq after Italy's surprise decision to pull its 3,000 soldiers from the war-torn country. [AFP/File]

That decision was opposed by most Australians and Howard came under sharp questioning in parliament Wednesday over whether he would again boost the number of Australian troops in Iraq to fill the gap left by the Italian pullout.

"We don't have any current plans to increase that number, but I cannot rule out some changes in the future and I don't intend to do so," Howard said, adding that Australia had received no requests for more troops.

Earlier Foreign Minister Alexander Downer had described the chances of more deployments to Iraq as "highly unlikely".

"We don't have any intention of sending any further troops to Iraq at this stage," he said.

Italy's contingent was the fourth largest in Iraq after those from the United States, Britain and South Korea.

Australia currently has about 400 troops inside Iraq and a further 450 support personnel in the region.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi announced the withdrawal of his country's troops on Tuesday amid widespread public anger over an incident in which US troops killed an Italian secret service agent who was escorting a freed Italian hostage to Baghdad airport.

But Berlusconi said the withdrawal was contingent on "the capacity of the Iraqi government to give itself an acceptable security structure".

Downer said it was too early to say for sure that Italy would actually carry out its withdrawal in the timeframe announced.

"We'll have to wait and see what the situation will be, the Italians will make a decision then in light of the circumstances in six months' time," he said.

Downer reaffirmed Australia's refusal to set down a timeframe for its troop commitment to Iraq.

"It would be catastrophic for the international community, in particular the Americans, ... to abandon the Iraqi community in the wake of their elections and as democracy develops in Iraq -- to abandon them to the insurgents and the terrorists," he said.

"That would obviously be an utterly foolish thing to do," he said.

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