| 4 October 2004 (NCA) -- Polish Foreign Minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz today distanced the government from a statement by the country's defense minister that Poland would pull its troops out of Iraq by the end of next year. Cimoszewicz told reporters in Warsaw that it would be good if the situation in Iraq had reached a point where one could say the mission there is finished. But he said this is not yet the case. He said Poland must not let down its ally, the United States. His comments come after Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski in radio and press interviews earlier said that Poland will withdraw its 2,500 troops from the country by the end of 2005. |