Iraq

Poland feeling 'misled'

WARSAW, Poland - President Aleksander Kwasniewski, a key U.S. ally, said Thursday that Poland was "misled" about whether Saddam Hussein's regime had weapons of mass destruction and was considering withdrawing troops from Iraq several months early.

The remarks came as polls show about half of Poles are opposed to involvement in Iraq and after deadly bombings in Madrid - possibly by al-Qaida in retaliation for Spain's alliance with the United States - triggered fears of a terror attack on Polish soil.

Kwasniewski's comments were the first by a Polish leader to raise doubts about the intelligence behind the decision for going to war and the latest signs of a weakening of support for the war among coalition members. He tempered them by stressing that Poland is not about to abandon its mission in Iraq, and said Iraq was a better place without Hussein.

"But naturally I also feel uncomfortable due to the fact that we were misled with the information on weapons of mass destruction," Kwasniewski told French reporters, according to a transcript released by his press office.

"This is the problem of the United States, of Britain and also of many other nations," he later told a news conference.

Despite his comments, U.S. national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said she did not think Poland was withdrawing its support for the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq.

"I talked to the Poles, and they think they were a bit misinterpreted here, because there's been no stronger ally in this than the Poles," Rice said in a CNN interview.

Poland contributed 2,400 combat troops to the Iraq invasion and now commands a 9,500-strong multinational force, making it one of Washington's staunchest allies.

The force in Iraq includes 1,300 troops from Spain, whose new government has said it wants to withdraw them by June 30 unless the U.N. takes control of peacekeeping.

Early today, South Korea scrubbed plans to send troops to Kirkuk, citing U.S. pressure to participate in "offensive operations," the Defense Ministry said. It still plans to send the the 3,600 forces to help rebuild the country, but it is looking for a different location.

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