International   

Troops to leave Iraq by mid-2008: Rudd

Melbourne: Australian combat troops will be pulled out of Iraq by the middle of next year, Prime Minister-elect Kevin Rudd said on Friday, spelling out a timetable for keeping his campaign promise and marking a shift in his country’s policy.

Mr. Rudd, who swept to victory in last Saturday’s elections ousting Conservative Prime Minister John Howard, a staunch supporter of the U.S.-led war in Iraq, said he would meet U.S. Ambassador Robert McCallum soon for discussions on the precise timing of the withdrawal.

“The combat force in Iraq we would have home by around about the middle of next year,” Mr. Rudd told a local radio channel here. “We’ve not begun our discussions with the United States on that. We’ll have a meeting with the United States ambassador before too long to set up the appropriate processes for discussing that,” he said. — PTI

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Sudan court jails U.K. teacher for 15 days
Troops to leave Iraq by mid-2008: Rudd
Opposition divided on poll boycott
LTTE chief’s dream shattered, says Colombo
Remove all curbs: Pakistan journalists
Russia tops in literacy test
Meet on polar bears
Khalsa retained charity status till 2004: report
I will return whenever I want, says M.F. Husain
Signal honour for ethnic Indian
British Sikh girl sentenced to life

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu