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SYDNEY - Australian Prime Minister John Howard has a secret plan to begin withdrawing Australian troops from Iraq by February, and intends to use it to ambush Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd at this year's election, according to a senior military source.
Mr Rudd has committed Labor to pulling out Australian troops from the increasingly unpopular war, if he wins.
But Mr Howard and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer have both denied any timetable for a pull-out, News Limited newspapers reported today.
"We have no plans to do that. We are not committed to a timetable in relation to our troops in Iraq," Mr Howard was quoted as saying.
"We are committed to an outcome which is driven by circumstances and events, not by a particular time."
A well-placed source said the plan is one of the most closely guarded secrets in the top levels of the bureaucracy, and it's understood it has not yet been put to the Bush Administration or even gone before the National Security Committee of Cabinet, News Limited reported.
"The government is quietly saying to Defence: 'We don't want to get caught in Iraq if it comes unstuck for the Americans'," another well-placed source was quoted as saying. "They want to be ready to go, even before the Americans."
Australia's planned troop withdrawal is expected to begin at the same time the US military is expected to begin drawing down its presence in Iraq in February, News Limited said.
- AAP
