Australia Denies Planning Early Southern Iraq Withdrawal

Text of report by Radio Australia on 14 September

[Newsreader] [Defence Minister] Senator [Robert Hill] has dismissed Japanese reports that Australia is planning to withdraw forces from southern Iraq.

The Australian troops in Al-Muthanna Province are guarding a Japanese engineering contingent and training local Iraqi security forces. Two Japanese newspapers have reported there are concerns about plans by Australia and Britain to pull their troops out of Iraq.

Senator Hill says it was always Australia’s plan to review its deployment half-way through next year, and hand over [to] Iraqi forces.

[Hill] We haven’t told them any more than what we’ve said publicly. We’ve made a commitment to a 12-month deployment. I think that takes us through to about April, maybe even May of next year. And during the course of that 12 months we said we would look to the future.