** This is a transcript of the English language used at the press conference. **
PRIME MINISTER AL-JAAFARI:
[Arabic language]
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
Prime Minister, it is a great pleasure to be here in Baghdad to meet you face to face for the first time and to thank you for a number of things, to thank you for the great assistance provided by the security forces in freeing the Australian hostage Douglas Wood, but more generally to express the continuing friendship and support of the people of Australia for the people of Iraq. We want Iraq to be free, independent and strong. We want Iraq to achieve her rightful place in the world. We want Iraqis to run Iraq's affairs and we see our role as assisting the people of Iraq and the Iraqi Government towards achieving that goal. We want to see into the future, a strong economic relationship as well as a strong political relationship. We believe there are many ways in which our two people can work together. We were inspired by the sight of eight and a half million Iraqis risking their lives and risking injury, in order to vote. It was an inspiring demonstration of democratic will for somebody who has grown up in a country which takes democracy for granted. It was a reminder of the challenges that the people in this country have. Australians have a great goodwill towards the people of Iraq and we will continue to assist in any way we can to build the structures of Government. We welcome the progress towards drawing up the Iraqi constitution, we welcome the inclusive approach being taken by the Government towards the drafting of that Constitution because the different elements of Iraqi society must work together to build a stronger and more stable future. Prime Minister, to you personally, I wish you well, I thank you for the courtesy you have extended to me, I enjoyed meeting your football team when it played against Australia in Sydney and I wish it well, it did very well in the Olympic Games and those contacts between countries are very important to all of us. Thank you for having me.
QUESTION:
[Arabic language]
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
Well, we have a force of some in all, when you take into account the naval deployment and you take into account the air elements and the security forces that are in the southern part of Iraq in conjunction with the Japanese civil reconstruction effort, the total number I think is in the order of 1300 to 1400.
QUESTION:
[Arabic language]
PRIME MINISTER AL-JAAFARI:
[Arabic language]
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER AL-JAAFARI:
Thank you.
[ends]