Visiting Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said Thursday in Canberra that his country is planning to have its own troops to take over security responsibility as early as the end of next year.

"Almost half of the country now is almost totally under the control of the Iraqi forces," he told reporters.

"The other half, we are planning by the end of 2007, perhaps 2008, to have sufficient trained and equipped Iraqi forces to take over responsibility," he said.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the sooner the Iraqis could look after themselves, the better.

But he stopped short of putting a time frame for the Australian troops withdrawal.

He described al-Shahristani's prediction as "optimistic."

"The sooner they're able to do it the better, of course," he told Australian Associated Press.

"We're not putting a timeframe on it, we're just going to depend on how the capabilities of the Iraqi troops develop," he said.

Downer said he had a fruitful discussion with the minister.

"We discussed our commercial relationship and we had a good discussion also about the security situation in Iraq," he said.

"He was, if I can put it this way, a little more optimistic than some of us sometimes have been in recent times and he, of course, is very committed to keeping Iraqi troops there until the Iraqi defense force can take over the security of the country," he said.

"That is entirely our position and the position of the coalition (forces) generally," he added.

Source: Xinhua