COPENHAGEN - Denmark may pull 100 soldiers out of Iraq -- a fifth of its total contingent -- during the second half of this year, according to a government report to be published on May 10, Danish media said. “The report will be published on the 10th of May but no announcement will be made before then” as to the number of soldiers, a civil servant at the foreign affairs ministry, who did not wish to be named, told AFP.
The document is not yet finished, and must be submitted to parliament for approval, according to the state television station TV2. “There will be two procedures in the parliament before the final vote later in May probably,” AFP’s foreign ministry source confirmed. Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller refused to make any comment until the report was published.
The 500 Danish troops are stationed in Basra under British command. Their mandate, renewable every six months, comes to an end in June. |