Thailand's Senate on Tuesday morning started debate on whether to withdraw the nation's troops from Iraq as the situation there is deteriorating.

The Senate on Monday adopted an urgent motion for the debate on the withdrawal issue by a vote of 64 to 40.

Senators supporting the motion believed that it is time to pullout the 447 Thai soldiers from the southern Iraqi city of Karbala for the security concern and their limited move there for safety reasons.

"I have been informed by a senior Thai soldier that the Thai troops are being treated like prisoners because they are not allowed to go out anywhere," Senator Karun Saingarm was quoted by Bangkok Post as saying.

The Thai soldiers currently stationed in Karba were the second batch of Thais working in the post-war Iraq.

They are mostly medical staff, mechanists and engineers. Two ofthem were killed in last December when an attack against foreign troops in Karbala occurred.

Domestic call for withdrawal ran high when the Thai Embassy to Sweden in early April received a letter threatening to launch terrorist attack against Thai target if the government did not pull out its troops in Iraq.

The Thai government insisted that the troops would withdraw from Iraq only after the scheduled authority transition completed in June.

Defense Minister Chettha Thanajaro on Tuesday morning reiterated that the government so far had no plan to withdraw fromIraq. He was present at Senate debating on the same day.

Security issue has become a major concern of the Thai government since the country was believed to have more involved with the United States' anti-terrorism war in last year and the southern provinces were caught in unrest this year.

Thailand was granted with the non-NATO status last October for arresting Jemaah Islamiyah's (JI) second headsman Hambali in August and sending troops to Iraq in September.

Source: Xinhua