SYDNEY, March 26 (UPI) -- The head of Australia's Labor Party Friday denied the opposition party was split on bringing troops home from Iraq by Christmas.
"Labor is 100 percent united behind our commitment to have the troops back," Mark Latham said.
The comments came after the party's foreign affairs spokesman, Kevin Rudd, said if Labor won the elections, scheduled for the second half of the year, it would seek advice on the security situation in Iraq before making a decision on a pullout.
Latham maintains the government of Prime Minister John Howard's "flawed strategy" in Iraq has made Australia more susceptible to danger.
In Iraq, however, a spokesman for Massoud Barzani, this month's president of the U.S.-backed Iraqi Governing Council, urged Australian troops to stay.
"We need Australian troops to help save the Iraqi people," the spokesman was quoted as saying by the Sydney Morning Herald.
The speculation Labor might withdraw Australian troops if it came to power comes on the heels of Spain's decision to pull back its troops from Iraq by June 30 unless there is a new U.N. mandate.
