The last of Thailand's troops will be out of Iraq by September 20 marking the end of a controversial year-long mission, the country's defence minister said on Friday.
"We have started withdrawal procedures... and I expect our last soldier would arrive home on September 20," General Chettha Thanajaro told reporters here.
Thailand sent a 451-strong contingent of troops to Iraq for a purely humanitarian mission and the one-year deployment had been due to end in late September.
But UN Secretary General Kofi Annan asked the government this week to delay its departure because of the ongoing security crisis in Iraq that threatened elections there planned for January.
A report by a government official of Tuesday's meeting in the Thai capital between Annan and Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra gave no indication that the pull-out had started.
The minister Friday scotched any suggestions that Thailand would delay the withdrawal until after the elections in Iraq and indicated that the pull-out started on July 1.
"As of now we have already made some movements," the minister said. "We are lucky that we are safe, and we will still complete our commitment which is the best way."
Asked when the pull-out started, Chettha said the withdrawal would take 82 days and "you can calculate backward" from the day the last soldier was due back in Thailand.
Lieutenant General Kemarat Kanchanawat, the Supreme Command's director of joint operations, said any decision to prolong the Thai presence in Iraq would have to be made by the government.
He said officers had begun co-ordinating with authorities in Kuwait to move Thai troops and equipment from Iraq via aircraft, ships and truck transport.
Elections are due to take place in Thailand around January and the year-long deployment has proved unpopular among Thais, being marked by frequent calls for the troops to be brought home.
The calls became louder after the deaths of two Thai soldiers in a car bombing in December in the Shiite holy city of Karbala where the troops are based.
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