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Honduras to pull out troops

TEGUCIGALPA (HONDURAS), APRIL 20. Honduras will remove its 370 troops from Iraq ``in the shortest time possible,'' the Honduran President, Ricardo Maduro, said on Monday, confirming U.S. fears that its Central American ally might leave Iraq.

Honduran soldiers had been serving in Najaf under Spanish command, alongside small forces from El Salvador and the Dominican Republic.

The future of those troops was thrown into doubt on Sunday when the Spanish Prime Minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, ordered his country's soldiers to return home as soon as possible.

By Congressional mandate, Honduras had been scheduled to leave Iraq around July 1. Mr. Maduro did not give an exact date for their departure, but said during a national television address that the soldiers would return home ``in the shortest possible time and under safe conditions for our troops.''

Dagoberto Rodriguez, a Maduro spokesman, said ``the troops will leave Iraq before July,'' and said the Government would announce an exact date soon. The Foreign Relations Secretary, Leonidas Rosa Bautista, said the departure date depended on ``working out military logistics.''

The Honduran military spokesman, Col. Rafael Moreno, said earlier Monday that the country's forces would remain in Iraq under Polish command.

AP

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