Denmark to keep troops in Iraq

COPENHAGEN - Denmark will keep its troops in Iraq for at least eight months after their current mandate expires at the beginning of June, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

It should be possible to reduce the number of Danish troops in Iraq gradually from the current 530 after parliamentary elections there in early 2006, the ministry said in a report on the Danish military role in Iraq.

"The analysis ... establishes the continued need for the Danish contribution to the security assignment in the south of Iraq," Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller said.

Last week, Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said after talks with the Social Democratic opposition that he expected broad political backing for an extension of the Danish force's tour of duty in southern Iraq near Basra.

An extension must be approved by parliament, but even without opposition support Fogh Rasmussen's centre-right government has enough votes to win a mandate with backing from its parliamentary ally, the far-right Danish People's Party.

Broad public support for the force waned last year and polls earlier this year showed a majority of Danes thought the troops should be brought home immediately, or kept in Iraq for a limited time.

But Moeller said it was impossible to say exactly when the Danes would be able to leave Iraq.

The ministry report said the Danish troops' mission should change in the future to an emphasis on training Iraqi security forces and backing up the emerging civilian authorities.

- REUTERS