Iraq to descend to civil war if coalition forces withdraw: Australian FM

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer on Monday rejected domestic calls for withdrawal from Iraq, saying Iraq will descend into civil war if coalition forces withdraw too early.

Australia's biggest opposition party the Labor party has said that coalition forces are making the situation in Iraq worse.

Labor leader Kim Beazley insists that the coalition presence is simply a magnet for terrorists rather than a deterrent.

But Downer warned that if the government were to follow Labor's suggestion and withdraw from Iraq, civil war would be the end result.

"What (Opposition Leader Kim) Beazley wants is for the international forces all to leave Iraq and to leave the country in the hands of the insurgents," Downer told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio.

"If he wants to see civil war then all of the international troops should move out of Iraq and you'll certainly see civil war on a grander scale if that happens," he said.

The Australian government has been maintaining that it will only think about withdrawing its troops when Iraqi forces are able to take up their own responsibility.

Downer said Monday that any transfer of security control should be based on conditions at the time rather than a specific timeframe.

"That is ... once the Iraqis are able to control sufficiently the security of their own country - sufficient to keep in place their own government rather than have the country taken over by the terrorists and the insurgents - then there won't be much of a role left for the international forces," he said.

Australia, a staunch supporter of the U.S.-led war on terror, currently maintains around 1,400 troops in and around Iraq.

Source: Xinhua