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SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - Australia is likely to speed up its troop withdrawal from East Timor now the U.N. has authorized the deployment of international police to the troubled country, the army chief said Sunday.
Some 3,000 Australian army, navy and air force personnel were sent to East Timor in May when clashes between rival security forces spilled into gang warfare. Canberra now has around 1,500 troops and 200 police there.
The U.N. Security Council on Friday authorized a mission of 1,600 international police and 34 military liaison officers to help stabilize the fledgling country ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for 2007.
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