Albania, Poland pledge to keep troops in Iraq

TIRANA, Dec. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- Albania and Poland reconfirmed on Tuesday that their troops will stay in Iraq to help maintain stability in the country.

"We shall continue our contribution to assisting the country ina normal development of elections next year," said Albanian Prime Minister Fatos Nano when he met with his visiting Polish counterpart, Marek Belka.

Both prime ministers hoped that the situation in Iraq would calm down for the elections scheduled for Jan. 30.

"What we are doing in Iraq is not only for the sake of the Iraqi people but for the safety of the whole region and the world,as terrorism is global. Nobody can hide from terrorism and we should persecute terrorism," Belka said.

He hoped that the situation would stabilize in Iraq so that thetroops could "hand over the tasks to the Iraqi army and police we are training." Last week Warsaw said it would cut the number of its troops in Iraq from 2,400 to 1,700 in February.

A strong ally of the United States since the start of the Iraq war, Poland administers a zone south of Baghdad and is leader of amultinational force of 6,000 troops.

Meanwhile, Albania supported the US-led war in Iraq and has a small contingent of 71 troops serving alongside US forces in the town of Mosul.