"We consider that the continuation in the coming months of our mission in its current form makes a lot of sense, and the situation can only change after parliamentary elections planned before the end of January, 2005," he told reporters.

He was speaking a day after outgoing prime minister Leszek Miller said Spain's decision to withdraw from a 9,000-strong Polish-led contingent in Iraq had forced Warsaw to consider the future of its own forces in the country.

Poland, a key US ally which contributed about 200 troops to the US-led coalition in the war to overthrow Saddam Hussein, now has 2,500 soldiers in the force patrolling a large swathe of the country.

Szmajdzinski stressed, however, that all depended on the political situation after June 30, the planned date for the handover of power to the Iraqi authorities.

"Poland's military presence in Iraq after June 30 depends on how the political process goes and the attitude of the provisional Iraqi government, which will decide whether it is interested in the presence of Polish armed forces," he said.

"From our point of view, to guarantee security and the reconstruction of Iraq, the presence of stabilisation forces is useful and it would be unreasonable to waste what we have accomplished," he said.

The Polish-led force was badly dented this week, when Spain's new Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero ordered his country's 1,432 troops to withdraw from Iraq "as soon as possible".

The announcement had a domino effect, with Honduras and the Dominican Republic announcing they would follow suit, and withdraw their respective 368 and 302 troops from the Polish-led contingent.

Once the withdrawals have taken place, the contingent will have lost more than a fifth of its headcount, or 2,000 troops.

Szmajdzinski said in response to a reporter's question that one option under consideration was to replace the troops with American soldiers.

"It is one of the options, of course," he said.

He said Poland's chief of staff would on Friday discuss the situation with the chief of the Polish-led force, General Mieczyslaw Bieniek, who himself is in contact with US Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the head of US forces in the country.

"We are working together with the Americans, " he said.

"The countries which decide are the United States and Britain, we have a secondary role," he said.

WAR.WIRE