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Danish troops to stay in Iraq another year: source

Posted on: Friday, 5 May 2006, 06:55 CDT

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Denmark will keep its 500 troops in Iraq for another 12 months, a government source told Reuters on Friday.

The mandate for Danish troops to remain in Iraq runs out on July 1. The centre-right government had no plan at present to reduce the number of troops, who are all stationed near Basra in the south of Iraq, the source said.

Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said that Denmark would stay in Iraq as part of a multi-national force as long as the Iraqi government wanted it.

However, a recent report on Denmark's TV2 news said the government would bring home up to 100 of its troops in the second half of this year.

Denmark has been part of the U.S.-led multi-national security force in Iraq since the end of the 2003 war.

Foreign Minister Per Stig Moller and Defense Minister Soren Gade were due to hold a press conference on the future of Danish troops in Iraq on Friday.

Three Danish troops have died in Iraq since 2003 and the country's image has been tarnished across the Muslim world by the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in a Danish newspaper.

The publication of the cartoons in daily Jyllands-Posten led to violent demonstrations from Morocco to Malaysia, while Denmark was forced to temporarily close embassies in some Muslim countries.

Source: REUTERS

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