Iraq multinational force will remain at current strength at least until after 2005 elections

Associated Press Worldstream
September 3, 2004 Friday

WARSAW, Poland — The Polish-led multinational force in Iraq will
remain at its current strength of 6,500 until at least after national
elections planned there in January, member nations agreed at a
conference in Warsaw, an official said Friday.

The agreement came as military representatives from the 16 nations that
contribute troops to the force responsible for an area in south-central
Iraq wound up two days of talks on the future composition of the
contingent, said Col. Zdzislaw Gnatowski, a spokesman for Poland’s
army chief of staff.

“All contributor nations pledged at the conference to keep their
contingents at the current level until the elections,” he said.

Poland and Ukraine, whose forces make up nearly half of the
international contingent, have said they will likely scale back their
involvement following the elections, which they expect will have a
stabilizing effect on Iraq.

At the conference, delegates from Armenia said their country would
also begin contributing troops to the multinational force, with a
contingent of 50 soldiers to start in January, Gnatowski said.

Gnatowski also said plans are underway to move the force’s
headquarters from the archaeological site of Babylon, and to hand over
responsibility of the neighboring Karbala province to Iraqi forces.