With Spain already removing its 1,432 personnel from Iraq, where spiralling violence and a spate of kidnappings has been aimed at pressuring troop pull outs, Australia, Japan and the Philippines all renewed their commitment.

But as Honduran President Ricardo Maduro added that his 368-strong force would also end its deployment, Thailand said it was reconsidering its presence while Japanese officials warned further withdrawals could trigger a mass exodus.

"If Spain pulls out, then it is possible that other nations may say, 'my country too'," Japanese Defence Agency Director-General Shigeru Ishiba told a news conference.

But Ishiba ruled out any withdrawal of Japan's 550 or so troops from the southern Iraqi town of Samawa, where they are deployed in humanitarian and reconstruction projects.

Thai government will pull Thai troops out of Iraq if they are assaulted and the situation becomes so dangerous that they could not continue their mission, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said yesterday.

"The safety of Thai troops in Iraq is my first priority. If the Thai troops are target of assaults and if the situation get out of control, they would be withdrawn immediately," he said.

The premier was responding to the Senate's motion that demanded that Thai troops be pulled out Iraq due to continued attacks on the international allied troops, led by the US, Asian News Network reports.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard said his country would not bow to threats from Iraqi insurgents loyal to radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr to target 850 Australian troops deployed countrywide for kidnapping.

In the Philippines, which last week suspended the dispatch of 45 soldiers to join a 51-member contingent, officials reiterated their contry's determination to remain, despite earlier saying their presence would be reviewed.

There was no immediate reaction from South Korea over the withdrawals, but Seoul has previously stressed it will stick to plans to deploy 3,000 personnel to add to an existing contingent of 400 military medics and engineers.

On Monday, a South Korean survey team returned from Iraq after a mission to determine the best location for the forthcoming deployment, which will make the country the biggest US-led coalition contributor after Britain.

Asia currently contributes roughly 2,500 personnel to Iraq with additional contingents from Mongolia and New Zealand.

TWENTY-TWO PRISONERS
Twenty-two prisoners were killed and about 100 wounded yesterday when mortar rounds hit a detention facility in Baghdad, a senior US military spokesman said.

Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, deputy coalition director of military operations, told a press conference that the rounds slammed into the Baghdad Confinement Facility administered by the US-led coalition.