Polish Cabinet trumpets Iraq pull-out as vote nears

Poland's unpopular government said yesterday it would pull troops from Iraq by the end of the year, making official an earlier proposal and prompting accusations it was trying to win Poles over before elections.

Defence Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski said improved stability in Iraq and the mission's high cost to the Polish taxpayer prompted the decision, which opposition figures denounced as a populist attempt to win votes.

"We are carrying out our exit strategy from Iraq," Mr Szmajdzinski, a leading figure in the ruling Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), told reporters after a Cabinet meeting.

He said other US allies were also preparing to leave. Poland is among Washington's most loyal European allies and sent 1,700 soldiers to Iraq, the fourth-largest contingent beside US troops after Britain, South Korea and Italy.

Poles have been less critical of the Iraq war than many western nations. But some of the government's nationalist and populist rivals have made the Iraq pull-out a campaign issue before elections likely to take place in September.

"This is clearly a decision motivated by domestic politics," Jacek Raciborski, a sociologist from Warsaw University, said.