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Sydney - Australia will not change its position on Iraq and begin pulling its troops out despite Britain's decision to withdraw from the southern city of Basra and US President George W. Bush's suggestion of American force reductions.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer yesterday made clear that Canberra remained committed to Iraq because it believed its forces were still required by Baghdad and it not want to desert the Americans in their time of need.
Downer stood firm in an address to foreign correspondents yesterday as Iraq continued to cast its shadow over the week-long summit of the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation forum, whose members include such strong opponents to the continuing occupation as Indonesia - the world's largest Islamic nation - and New Zealand.
Canberra's position has come under even closer scrutiny from the 1500-strong foreign media in Sydney for Apec, and the extreme security shutting down much of the city's central business district to protect leaders against the threat of violent demonstrations.
The most serious potential confrontation will be a march through downtown Sydney by the Stop Bush Coalition on Saturday, supported by meetings and declarations labelling Bush and Prime Minister John Howard war criminals.
Australia and Britain were America's only allies in the "coalition of the willing" that invaded Iraq, and with a warship in the Gulf, Air Force aircraft, a small security detachment in Baghdad and a task force of 550 in the south of the nation, has about 1500 troops committed to the nation.
Howard's Government has also come under criticism for reports that it is planning to join an American programme to develop new nuclear technology, and acquire access to America's most sophisticated military technology, and that it will agree this week to sell uranium to Russia.
Downer said Canberra would continue to judge its deployment on a "day-by-day, month-by-month, year-by-year" basis and would take the advice of the Defence Force on how many troops were needed to fulfil Australia's role of training and supporting Iraqi security forces.
"If those conditions change it could in time lead to ... us deciding to perform fewer roles in that part of the world," he said. "We'll address that when those circumstances arise, but just at the moment we think [Australian troops] are doing a great job and we're maintaining that particular deployment for the time being."
Downer refused to be drawn on Bush's suggestion of a US force reduction, saying Australia's small deployment could not be compared to the American commitment of 160,000 troops, bolstered by Washington's recent surge in numbers.
He said the surge appeared to have so far been successful and the US would have to make its own judgments in the coming months over its future commitment to Iraq - but this was a completely different proposition to the kind of work Australia was doing.
Downer also said he welcomed Britain's decision to pull out of Basra and reduce its Iraq forces to about 5000 troops because it was based on conditions on the ground.
"The British have made the judgment ... that the Iraqi security forces will be able to maintain security in Basra city and the British will move into more of an overwatch role in that part of Iraq.
"This is somewhat similar to the overwatch role we have in southern Iraq, on a much bigger scale.
"The task is, of course, to hand over, as progressively as you can, security to the Iraqis. The problem is that in certain parts of Iraq that's not possible in the short term."
