Hungary completed its withdrawal from Iraq as its last soldier left the war-ravaged country on Monday, said the Defense Ministry.

Hungarian soldiers are now in a temporary US base in Kuwait and will return home before Christmas, said the ministry in a statement.

Vehicles and other equipment will be transported back home nextyear, it said.

Hungary sent 300 troops to Iraq at the request of the United States in 2003 for transportation services. Their mandate expires at the end of this December.

Parliament in November rejected Prime Minister Gyurcsany Ferenc's request for an extension of the mission until March 2005 in view of Iraq's Jan. 30 general elections.

A Hungarian soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq in June.

Source: Xinhua