Australia is set to bring its troops home from Afghanistan a year earlier than planned with most soldiers withdrawn in 2013, reports said on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard was expected to make the announcement during a speech to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute later in the day, outlining a timetable she will take to a NATO summit in Chicago next month.
Canberra has faced increasing pressure over the long-running Afghan campaign and a 2013 pull-out date will be a year in advance of the 2014 deadline previously laid down by NATO-led international forces.
It will also mean most Australian troops are likely to be home before the next election. Gillard is struggling in opinion polls and many people are against the deployment to Afghanistan.
In her speech notes obtained by the Sydney Morning Herald, Gillard reportedly says “the peoples of the world’s democracies are weary of this war”.
“I’m now confident that Chicago will recognise mid-2013 as a key milestone in the international strategy,” the speech notes said.
“A crucial point when the international forces will be able to move to a supporting role across all of Afghanistan.”
The Herald said Australian troops would begin withdrawing as soon as Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai declares Afghans will take responsibility for Uruzgan province, where Australian forces are based.
It said Karzai was expected to make that announcement at the end of the month. After that, Gillard will say in the speech, the withdrawal should take 12 to 18 months.
Australia, a key coalition ally of the United States and Britain, first committed to the war in 2001 before pulling out only to re-enter the arena in 2005.
It has some 1,550 troops stationed in the strife-torn country and has so far lost 32 soldiers in the conflict.
