Thirteen countries with troops currently stationed in Iraq will remove their soldiers by the end of the year from the war-torn country.

President Bush and former British prime minister Tony Blair had scrambled the 'coalition of the willing' together in the build-up of the 2003 Iraqi invasion, in a bid to legitimize what was always an unpopular war in world public opinion.

Britain, Australia, Romania, Estonia and El Salvador are the only nations, apart from the US, that plan to remain in Iraq after a UN mandate authorizing their presence expires on December 31.

Brig. Gen. Nicolas Matern, Multi-National Corps Iraq deputy commander, which oversees the US military's coalition partners, said that coalition forces are set to be significantly depleted, The Times of London reported on Saturday.

"We are going to say farewell to 13 different nations in the space of two and a half weeks," Matern, said.

He said the loss of the 13 countries follows similar troop withdrawals by other former coalition members.

"We started off with 35 countries but it has steadily been going down. As from December it is going to go all the way down," he said.

A farewell ceremony took place on Wednesday for 76 Macedonian soldiers. Another took place on Saturday for 86 troops from Bosnia and Herzegovina and a third is scheduled for South Korea's contingent on Sunday. Others set to follow suit include soldiers from Albania, Azerbaijan, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Lithuania, Japan, Moldova, Bulgaria, Tonga and Ukraine.

The size of the outgoing contingents ranges from just four Lithuanians to 300 South Koreans. Many countries have reduced their presence over the past five years, but it has always been a fraction of the US deployment, now standing at 146,000.

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