WARSAW, Nov. 25 (Xinhuanet) -- Poland will pull its troops out of Iraq in 2006 and the government will decide the deadline of the withdrawal next month, Polish Defense Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said on Friday.

    "The government will decide on December 15 or 16 whether we will finish in January or February or whether there will be another rotation," Sikorski told reporters.

    He said the security situation in Iraq's south-central area overseen by Polish soldiers had improved sufficiently to hand over to Iraqi forces.

    "We want to complete our mission, but we expect to be out next year," he said.

    Poland dispatched an initial 2,500 troops to Iraq in 2003 as part of US-led occupation forces.

    Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski said in July that the United States had agreed to Poland's plan to withdraw the remaining 1,400 troops from Iraq by the end of January, 2006. Enditem