The outgoing prime minister of Poland, one of Washington's key allies in Iraq, admitted on Wednesday Spain's decision to withdraw its troops had forced Warsaw to consider the future of its own forces in the country.
"The problem exists. We cannot turn a blind eye to the fact that Spain and the Latin Americans are leaving Iraq," Prime Minister Leszek Miller told reporters.
"We will not make any rash gestures. A final decision about the pullout date will be agreed and well thought over," said Miller, who has announced he will resign on May 2, the day after Poland's entrance to the European Union.
A 9,000-strong Polish-led multinational force patrolling a large swathe of southern Iraq was dented earlier this week, when Spain's new Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero ordered his country's troops to withdraw from Iraq "as soon as possible".
Spain's 1,432-strong contingent has started handing over its positions in Iraq to new coalition troops, following the incoming Madrid government's decision to withdraw. Honduras and the Dominican Republic then announced they would follow suit, and withdraw their respective 368 and 302 troops from the Polish-led force following the Spanish decision.
Once the withdrawals have taken place, the Polish force will therefore have lost more than a fifth of its headcount, or 2,000 troops.
Zapatero had vowed following his Socialist Party's election win last month to pull Spanish troops from Iraq unless they come under UN command by June 30, when their mandate expires.
Miller said Marek Belka, the former finance minister chosen by President Aleksander Kwasniewski to replace him "would no doubt lay out his programme on Iraq" shortly after taking office.
He stressed that a long-term solution in Iraq was political rather than military and that "Poland's military presence, instead of increasing, can only decrease. This conflict has to be resolved by political means."
Earlier, as Poland mulled how to deal with the holes created by the departure of the Spanish and Latin American troops, Polish Defence Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski said plugging the gap would take time.
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