BAGHDAD, Dec 1: The last Italian troops in Iraq headed home on Friday as Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said his forces could take over the battered nation’s security by June.“The last of the Italians are leaving today for Kuwait and from there they will go to Italy,” British military spokesman Major Charlie Burbridge said, adding that the troops had ended military operations in the past six weeks.

“All of them will be gone by the afternoon,” he said.

On Thursday Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said the remaining 70 troops of the 3,000 sent to Iraq in 2003 would return home in the first few days of December.

Italy’s centre-left parties, backing Mr Prodi’s government which replaced the conservative administration of Silvio Berlusconi after April elections, made withdrawal from Iraq one of the centrepieces of their election campaign.

The Italians were deployed in Iraq's south along with British, Australians and Romanian forces.—AFP