Aussie PM in Iraq plane drama

A plane carrying the Australian Prime minister John Howard has been forced to make an emergency landing in south-eastern Iraq.

The plane, on its way to Baghdad, reportedly filled up with smoke. However, the prime minister was unharmed.

Howard praised the plane's pilot, saying: "He's very good, a very calm pilot. If you're going have that sort of, how shall we put it, diversion, it's better to have him flying it."

Howard, who was making his first trip to Iraq, has been under increasing political pressure to set an exit strategy for Australia's 1,400 troops from Iraq.

Howard told soldiers: "Our mission here in Iraq is to create a situation where the Iraqis can look after themselves. No nation wants foreign soldiers on its soil indefinitely.

"No nation wants to be in a foreign country indefinitely. But we have a job to do, we have a job to create a situation where the Iraqis can grab hold of a reasonably democratic future."

He declined to commit to a timeline for withdrawing the country's forces from Iraq, but insisted steady progress was being made.

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