Romanian Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu called for a withdrawal of the country's 600-strong contingent in Iraq by Christmas this year.

Romania backed the US-led coalition in the campaign to oust the regime of Saddam Hussein in 2003 and was rewarded with membership in the NATO military alliance a year later.

The Romanian troops' mission is to keep the peace in the town of Nassiriya and train Iraqi policemen.

Two Romanian servicemen died in Iraq since the beginning of the mission and support for troops withdrawal has been growing domestically, clashing with the foreign policy of Romanian President Traian Basescu.

Basescu, who has made alliance with Washington and London the mainstay of his foreign policy, opposes pulling out the troops before the US does.

The issue is also one of the many on which Tariceanu and Basescu do not see face to face, and the PM's remarks are the latest barb exchanged in the open war between the two.

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