Support for Danish troop contingent in Iraq slipping

Oct 29, 2006, 11:11 GMT

Copenhagen- Public support for Denmark's military presence in Iraq is slipping, and more Danes want to pull out the 530-strong contingent, according to two polls published Sunday.

A Catinet Research poll said 32 per cent of Danes favoured pulling back the contingent when its current mandate expires in July, while 29 per cent said the force should be withdrawn immediately.

Only one in four of the 1,020 voters polled October 25 to 27 favoured maintaining the Danish contingent until its overall task to restore stability and security was accomplished, the Catinet Research poll commissioned by Danish news agency Ritzau said.

Less than 5 per cent said Denmark should pull out when the United States leaves Iraq, while almost 9 per cent were undecided.

A majority, 51 per cent, said it was wrong to send troops to Iraq while 36.9 per cent said the move was correct. In Janury 2005, some 44 per cent backed the deployment while 46 per cent were against.

Jens Hald Madsen, foreign affairs spokesman for Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen's Liberal Party, said the Danish contingent would remain as long as the ruling coalition in Iraq wished them to.

Mogens Lykketoft, foreign affairs spokesman for the opposition Social Democrats which has opposed extending the Danish mandate, said the poll suggested 'that most voters have the same view of the disastrous situation in Iraq as we do.'

Another poll, conducted by market research institute Zapera, suggested that half the voters said it was wrong that Denmark had engaged itself in Iraq, while 30 per cent wanted an immediate pull out.

The poll was commissioned by the weekly Ugebrevet Mandag Morgen in its coming edition, public broadcaster DR said. It also suggested that resistance to the Danish involvement was strongest in the age group 18 to 30.

Last week, Rasmussen expressed concern over developments in Iraq, saying efforts by the ruling coalition in Baghdad to introduce reforms, stability and security had been too slow.

At a subsequent meeting with the foreign affairs committee the premier however ruled out an early withdrawal.