Poland's new defense minister said Friday the country would decide in mid-December whether to continue its military mission in Iraq beyond January, and only after consultations with U.S. and Iraqi officials, AP reported. ``This decision of course will be taken in agreement with Iraqi authorities and our allies,'' said Radek Sikorski, defense minister in Poland's new conservative government, which is staunchly pro-U.S. ``We will know it about mid-December.'' Sikorski also said he hopes to make his first visit to Washington in the first week of December, the news agency PAP reported. Sikorski spoke to reporters in Kutno, central Poland, where he inspected armored vehicles made in Poland for Iraq's new army. Arms maker Bumar has manufactured 600 armored vehicles for the Iraqi army under a multimillion dollar (euro) contract. Poland's new government, which took office Oct. 31, has suggested the country might keep some soldiers in Iraq beyond early 2006, when the former left-wing government had planned to withdraw the troops. Poland committed combat troops to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and currently commands a multinational force of some 4,000 troops in three central Iraqi provinces.
