ARAB-EUROPEAN RELATIONS - Nov 2 - The Netherlands And Hungary To Quit Iraq Coalition.

The Netherlands and Hungary announce plans to pull their troops out of Iraq next March - moves that can undermine US efforts to secure greater international support for its mission. The decisions come as other coalition states, often facing public criticism over the deployment of troops in Iraq, have indicated they will review their plans after the elections due to be held in Iraq in mid-January. The Dutch defence ministry said 1,350 soldiers going to Iraq on Nov 4 would leave in March and would be the country's last military contribution to the stabilisation effort. The Hungarian PM Ferenc Gyurcsany, announced plans to withdraw 300 troops in March. Gyurcsany said: "To stay there until elections are completed is an obligation, to stay there for much longer is an impossibility". The troop deployment has been a political millstone for the ruling Socialist party, which in the summer forced former PM Peter Medgyessy out of office and replaced him with Gyurcsany. The Dutch contingent is the seventh largest in Iraq after the US, which has 142,000 troops in Iraq, the UK (9,000), Italy (3,000), South Korea (2,800), Poland (2,400) and Ukraine (1,600). Hungary is among about 25 states which have each sent up to 1,000 troops. About ten states have already either pulled out or announced plans to do so, including Spain, which had 1,400 in Iraq until this year's general election when the centre-right government of former PM Jose Mara Aznar was replaced by the Socialist administration of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. Bulgaria said it would cut its military presence by 10% next month. In Poland, the government last year volunteered for a prominent role in Iraq, accepting leadership of a multinational force, but has faced growing public criticism about the troops' continued presence. The defence minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski, recently suggested the contingent might leave by the end of 2005. He was quickly overruled by PM Marek Belka, but there are signs Poland could begin reducing its presence next year. In Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko, the opposition candidate in the presidential elections to be completed later this month, has promised to bring home the troops. Viktor Yanukovich, the government candidate, has said talks should start on the withdrawal. In Italy opponents of the Iraq campaign last month held a mass rally attended by tens of thousands of demonstrators. But the government has said Italian soldiers will stay as long as they are required. The US has been boosting troop numbers in Iraq to their highest levels since the summer of 2003 as the Pentagon anticipates more violence in the run-up to January's elections. On Nov 1, a brigade of Louisiana National Guard soldiers arrived in Camp Victory near Baghdad international airport which will increase US troop strength in Baghdad to about 40,000. Other units are having their deployment extended until after January. Overall there are now 142,000 US soldiers in Iraq but they are nonetheless showing signs of strain. Last month, Britain agreed to redeploy 850 soldiers from the south to stations around Baghdad, freeing badly needed US troops for an assault on the rebel stronghold of Falluja.