Italy will withdraw 1,000 troops from Iraq by June and the rest of the contingent will come home by the end of the year, Defence Minister Antonio Martino said on Thursday.
Speaking to a joint meeting of Senate and House foreign committees, Martino said Italy's 'Ancient Babylonia' mission will be "definitely accomplished" by the end of 2006. But he stressed that the Italian presence would be 'morphed' into a civilian-oriented mission to help reconstruction in the Dhi Qar province.
"This will be substantially civilian in nature but will not exclude the presence of (Italian) troops ...to guarantee the indispensable security of civilians taking part in the mission."
Italy, which did not take part in the US-led war on Iraq, currently has the fourth largest contingent serving there after the American, British (8,500) and South Korean (3,200).
Martino confirmed that after a drop from 3,200 to 2,900 troops in September, there would be a further reduction this month to 2,600. He has said repeatedly that the Italian contingent's mission now consists mainly of training and equipping the Iraqi security forces.
The government said recently that Italians had helped the local population with "500 concrete operations" and also trained 10,000 Iraqis police and soldiers. Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, a staunch ally of US President George W.Bush, had already announced that Italian troops would be redeployed by the end of the year, in concert with Iraqi officials and western allies.
While the centre-left opposition claims the Italian troops in Iraq are involved in what amounts to an ongoing war, the government insists on the humanitarian nature of the mission.
Nevertheless, Martino stressed that the announcement of the withdrawal was unrelated to campaigning for the April 9
general elections in Italy. Meanwhile, a Pentagon spokesman in Washington told ANSA that the US was "grateful to Italy which has been and continues to be a strong ally in the global war against terrorism."
