"The BSP will withdraw the Bulgarian contingent from Iraq immediately after we win the legislative elections," Stanichev said during a conference of the formerly communist party, which is leading in opinion polls.

"We are convinced that the Bulgarian people will support our decision to end this unpopular adventure which has cost us dearly," he added.

Bulgaria has 450 soldiers stationed in Iraq as part of the multinational force in the country under Polish command, and has so far lost seven men.

Stanichev urged the centre-right government of Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg to "re-examine the form of Bulgaria's contribution to the stabilisation of Iraq and to withdraw the soldiers after the January 30 elections there."

Defence Minister Nikolai Svinarov told AFP in an interview in December that "a political decision in Bulgaria is going to be taken in January" about its troops in Iraq.

He set out three options, saying Bulgaria would either maintain the current number of troops in the embattled country, reduce the number or withdraw completely.

A Gallup poll conducted in December showed that 28 percent of Bulgarians consulted were ready to vote for the Socialists, 22 percent supported Saxe-Coburg's National Simeon II Movement and eight percent would vote for its ally, the Turkish-minority Movement for Rights and Freedom.

Ten percent of those polled said they would vote for the centre-right Union of Free Democrats and nine percent for the Union for Democratic Forces.

Stanichev has said that his party hopes to win an absolute majority while the right is mulling an election accord to stop the Socialists from returning to power.