KEY POINTS:
WASHINGTON - Australia today said a hasty US withdrawal from Iraq would be disastrous and promised its close ally strong support to "see this job through."
"We believe that if the United States were to withdraw too quickly and inappropriately, the consequences would not only be disastrous for the Iraqi people, it could lead to neighbouring countries being drawn into military conflict over Iraq and in Iraq," Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told reporters.
"And, of course, the consequences for the struggle against terrorism internationally would be utterly disastrous," added Downer, speaking after talks with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
"That's one message that we have delivered to the Americans. I know it's not a very popular message."
Australia, one of the first nations to commit forces to the US-led war, is a strong US ally, with about 1400 troops in and around Iraq and Downer pledged continued help.
"We are Australians and basically with our mates, we don't go around bagging them for the convenience of headlines and being sort of cheap-skate popular politicians," said Downer.
US President George W Bush is under political pressure to find a way to end the US involvement in Iraq, where an insurgency and brutal sectarian violence rage nearly four years after the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
Australia's Defence Minister Brendan Nelson, who earlier signed an agreement with the United States for a joint fighter plane project, also promised solid support.
"Australia was there from the start and we will see this job through," Nelson told the same news conference.
Recent opinion polls in Australia said almost two in three Australians wanted their troops brought home from Iraq, but Prime Minister John Howard has made clear he wants them to stay until Iraq can handle its own security.
New public opinion polls in the United States offered Bush a sobering picture of American doubts about his policy. A CBS News poll found Americans have never been as pessimistic about the Iraq war, with more than 60 per cent saying it was a mistake.
Bush had been expected to unveil a new strategy for Iraq by the end of this year but the White House said the plan would now only be laid out to the public in early 2007.
Rice said the president was taking into consideration the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, which released its report last week, as well as the State Department, the Pentagon and others, and this took time.
"It should not be surprising that he wants to take the time to digest that and to discuss it with his senior advisors and then put forward a way forward," said Rice. "I am quite certain that that will be in a reasonable length of time."
- REUTERS
