About half of Dominican troops in Iraq have been withdrawn from the conflict-torn country and are now in a US camp in Kuwait, military sources of the Dominican Republic said Friday.

The Dominican Armed Forces Plans and Operations Director Francisco Antonio Ovalles said 140 Dominican soldiers of the 300 deployed in Iraq were in the first contingent withdrawn, and the rest would pull out from Iraq on May 3, together with the Spanish troops.

Ovalles did not say when this first contingent would return home.

Dominican Armed Forces Minister Jose Miguel Soto said Thursday that the withdrawal of the 300 soldiers would end before May 5.

Dominican President Hipolito Mejia decided Monday to pull the troops out of Iraq shortly after the Spanish and Honduran governments announced the return of their troops.

The Dominican troops was part of the Spanish-led Plus Ultra Brigade, which also includes Honduran, Salvadoran and Nicaraguan troops, under Spanish command.

Mejia said Friday he made the decision to sent troops to Iraq out of a reciprocal consideration for an important relationship with the United States. "We are neighbors of the Americans," he said.

The leader, who has been in power since 2000 and is now a candidate of the ruling Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) to enter for the upcoming May 16 elections, did not rule out the possibility that his pullout decision might cause problems.

"Of course, any decision made by a president causes problems," he said in a television interview when asked about possible negative impacts of the pullout.

(Xinhua News Agency May 1, 2004)