Australian Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon said on Monday it was not sustainable to keep many Australian troops abroad.
"Our troops are overstretched, with commitments in East Timor, Afghanistan and Iraq," he told reporters.
"Roughly half of our infantry and cavalry is somehow tied to those deployments. This is an unsustainable position," he said.
"We cannot, given our concurrence issues, continue to have so many troops tied up in that situation," he added.
Australia started pulling 550 troops out of Iraq on Monday, fulfilling the Labor Party's election promise to withdraw combat forces from Iraq. But some 300 Australian troops will remain in Iraq, including the 110-member security detachment guarding Australian diplomats and others in Baghdad.
No Australian soldiers have been killed in action in Iraq but 27 were wounded and two died of accidents while in Iraq. Meanwhile, a number of armored vehicles have been destroyed.
Source:Xinhua
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