IRAQ - The Dutch & Hungary To Quit.

The Netherlands and Hungary on Nov. 3 announced plans to pull their troops out of Iraq next March. 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 January Iraqi elections.

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 Dutch contingent is the seventh largest in Iraq after the US (142,000 troops), the UK (9,000), Italy (3,000), South Korea (2,800), Poland (2,400) and Ukraine (1,600).

Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany announced plans to withdraw 300 troops in March, saying: "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 prime minister Peter Medgyessy out of office and replaced him with Gyurcsany. 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 last March's general election when the centre-right government of former prime minister Jose Maria Aznar was replaced by the Socialist administration of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. Bulgaria said it would cut its military presence by 10% in December. 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. Jerzy Szmajdzinski, the defence minister, recently suggested the contingent might leave by end-2005. He was quickly overruled by Marek Belka, the prime minister, 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. The Polish withdrawal will leave a big hole. It is commanding a multinational brigade in central Iraq. Poland was supposed to rotate the command with Spain last summer, allowing it to bring some troops by the end of this year. But with Spain's troops withdrawal in March, those plans were disrupted.

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.