WARSAW, Oct 5: Poland, one of the main pillars of the US-led occupation in Iraq, will soon fix a date for the withdrawal of its 2,500 troops, its defence minister said on Tuesday , the day after he surprised Washington by promising a pullout at the end of next year.

Defence Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski, speaking before tense talks with visiting US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, said that a final timetable for the withdrawal would be decided soon after Oct 15.

"There is an ongoing debate within the government. Some preliminary conclusions will be presented by the prime minister to the parliament on Oct 15, when there is a vote on a no-confidence motion in the government," he told the private radio Zet.

"We would like shortly afterwards to adopt a clear position and fix the withdrawal date," the minister added. After his hour-long meeting with Mr Wolfowitz, Mr Szmajdzinski said he had assured the US Deputy Defence Secretary that Poland would honour its commitments in Iraq until the end of next year.

"(Poland) will definitely fully meet its commitments in Iraq for the whole of the year 2005," Mr Szmajdzinski told reporters following the meeting. "The coming six months will be decisive for the process of stabilization in Iraq and for its transformation into a democratic nation," he added.

Mr Wolfowitz thanked Poland for its role as part of the multinational force in Iraq, without commenting on a possible pullout plan. "I want to thank you for the outstanding cooperation, both in Afghanistan and in Iraq," he told the Polish minister.

Poland is the fourth largest troop contributor to the US-led forces in Iraq - after the United States itself, Britain and Italy - and has been one of Washington's staunchest allies there. But the ruling centre-left party faces strong popular opposition at home, with a recent poll suggesting more than 70 per cent of Poles are opposed to the troop deployment in Iraq.

Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski said on Monday after talks in Paris that Poland hoped "to finish our mission at the end of 2005". US President George Bush, who faces growing public disquiet over the troubled occupation of Iraq as he seeks re-election next month, is likely to be dismayed by the prospect of a Polish troop withdrawal.

His Democratic rival, John Kerry, who has accused Bush of launching an ill-considered war in Iraq, has recently closed the gap in opinion polls. However the United States on Monday downplayed the earlier Polish comments, saying Warsaw's commitment to the US-led forces was not "calendar-driven".

Poland sent 2,500 troops to Iraq last year in the wake of the invasion and commands a multinational division of 6,000 soldiers in southern and central Iraq. But the intervention has proven costly.

Seventeen Polish nationals have died in Iraq - 13 soldiers and four civilians - including three soldiers killed in an attack last month near the central Iraqi city of Hilla.

The issue has sparked internal divisions within the Polish government, with Prime Minister Marek Belka complaining that he had not been consulted over the defence minister's announcement on Monday of a pullout by the end of next year. But the two men met on Tuesday and Mr Szmajdzinski stressed that he had agreed his latest announcement with Belka, who served as top economic official in the former US-led administration of Iraq.

"The prime minister has authorized me to inform public opinion of this," the defence minister said. Analysts in Warsaw said the ruling Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) party was trying to salvage its popularity ahead of elections next year, with opinion polls currently crediting it with only seven percent support.

"In the background there is the very weak position of the ruling party in Poland," Mateusz Falkowski of the Institute of Public Affairs think-tank said. Another factor was the US election, in which John Kerry now seems to have a fighting chance of success.

"The Polish government is trying to moderate its position (over Iraq) among other reasons because there is a possibility that Kerry will become president of the United States," he said. -AFP