Highlighting the tough task of maintaining order in central Iraq where some 2,500 Polish troops are based, three civilians, including two US nationals, were shot dead on Tuesday evening while driving towards the nearby the town of Hilla, 100 kilometres (60 miles) southwest of Baghdad.

"I would like to reduce our numbers so we have less troops here next year," said Poland's deputy defence minister Janusz Zemke.

"It will be done in stages as the situation stabilises and the Iraqi forces become stronger," he told AFP, while on a tour of southern and central Iraq, where Poland heads a multinational division of some 9,000 soldiers.

A Polish army spokesman said the plan was to reduce Poland's military presence in Iraq by 10 percent by next January and continue cutting numbers.

But Warsaw remained committed to its mission in the country and would keep soldiers on the ground until the situation stabilised, the spokesman said.

The Polish contingent is training 4,500 Iraqi soldiers and 1,600 Iraqi policemen, according to Zemke. The training programme started two months ago and is due to finish in August.

"When the new Iraqi authority takes back sovereignty (on June 30) they will need special skills and we want to help them," the deputy minister said.

Poland is also spending some 40 million dollars on humanitarian works such as rebuilding schools and hospitals in the area.

"I opened a medical centre for children and also a school with Internet equipment," said Zemke, who has been in Iraq since Sunday.

Poland's US-supported foray into Iraq cost Polish taxpayers 45 million dollars last year and was expected to set them back 80 million dollars in 2004, said the defence official.

The Polish-led base has been the target of deadly insurgency attacks in recent months, but Zemke said the troops were aware of the dangers they faced when they came on the mission.

"We have not suffered big losses so far, with just two soldiers killed and several wounded," he added.

WAR.WIRE