The key US ally, which heads a multinational force of 6,500 administering a swathe of south central Iraq to which it sent more than 2,500 of its own troops, will hand over control of the province of Karbala, he said.

"We will leave the province of Karbala. The contingent will remain deployed in the provinces of Babil, Wasit and Al-Qadisiyah," the defence minister said in an interview with the daily Trybuna.

He did not specify which forces would assume responsibility in Poland's place.

Last month, Polish troops in Iraq already handed over some of the zone they control to US forces, including the province of Najaf, the scene of fierce fighting with Shiite militiamen.

Szmajdzinski confirmed that Poland was expecting to reduce troop levels in Iraq after the Iraqi elections in January and also announced that it will hand over its troops' headquarters in the Iraqi city of Babylon to the Iraqis.

"We have decided to hand over Babylon to the Iraqis. The headquarters will probably move to the province of Al-Qadisiyah (south of Baghdad)," he said.

His comments came as Warsaw hosted a two-day conference of military experts from the 11 nations in the Polish-led sector and the United States to thrash out plans to cut back the Polish military presence in Iraq.

"We are not in a position today to determine the size of the next contingent (which will take over in January). This will depend on the situation in Iraq, on the political process and the progress in forming an Iraq army, which is due to replace us," Szmajdzinski said.

"I remain moderately optimistic about the months ahead. We should have the chance to reduce the contingent," he added.

Amid strong popular opposition to the Polish troop deployment and continued unrest in the embattled country, the government in Warsaw is under domestic pressure to significantly scale back Poland's military involvement in Iraq.

Despite the Polish reduction, one more country will contribute a small number of troops to the multinational force, the Polish deputy chief of staff, General Mieczyslaw Cieniuch, said.

The former Soviet republic of Armenia will send at the end of November or early December a contingent of "several dozen military personnel, specialists in logistics, bomb disposal experts and doctors," he told a press conference.

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