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Australia has a strategy to pull out its troops from Iraq, but based on local conditions, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Friday.
The strategy to withdraw the 1,300 Australian troops in and around Iraq "is not time bound. It is condition bound and that is definitely the right approach," he said.
The crucial local condition is the ability of Iraqi forces to maintain security, Downer told Australian Broadcasting Corporation Radio.
He expressed satisfaction over the peaceful security situation in Iraq during the election day on Thursday.
"From the reports I have had so far, the Iraqi security forces -- that's around 200,000 of them -- did a very good job on election day keeping the security situation under control. That is encouraging," he said.
Downer acknowledged that "foreign forces (in Iraq) all want to leave as soon as they possibly can and the Iraqis want them to leave as soon as possible."
He mentioned sizable withdrawal of foreign troops in Iraq next year. "You will see in the course of 2006 a progressive downsizing in foreign forces, in particular of course the American forces. They have about 160,000 troops in Iraq at the moment, built up in particular for the election," he said.
(Xinhua News Agency December 16, 2005)
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