Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said on Friday that Italy will pull out some of its 3,000-strong forces from Iraq as planned in September.

"As far as our troop withdrawal goes, the situation has not changed. We will begin, as I have already announced, a partial withdrawal of around 300 troops in September," Berlusconi told a press conference at the sideline of the G8 summit.

Berlusconi, however, said that he would not speed up the withdrawal because of fresh terrorist attacks after London bombs on Thursday.

Because of its troop deployment in Iraq, Italy was a prime target for Islamist extremists, said Berlusconi.

But he refused to speed up the troop pullout, saying that "We have to fulfill our commitments and cannot leave the job half done."

(Xinhua News Agency July 9, 2005)