Kiev receives its dead from Iraq

A ceremony greeted the arrival of the soldiers' coffins

The bodies of eight Ukrainian soldiers and one Kazakh killed in an explosion in Iraq have returned to Kiev.

Their coffins arrived in the Ukrainian capital on a US military plane.

Relatives of the victims, senior officials from Ukraine and ambassadors from Kazakhstan, the US and Poland, attended a ceremony at the airport.

Outgoing Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma has ordered the withdrawal of his country's troops within six months.

Initial reports said the soldiers had died when a bomb they were removing exploded but subsequent accounts suggest it may have been a militant attack.

Heavy blow

With some 1,600 soldiers in Iraq, Ukraine is the fourth-largest foreign contributor to the American-led international force.

The latest deaths bring to at least 14 the number of Ukrainian soldiers killed in Iraq.

The withdrawal issue has been high on the agenda of opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko, who won the bitterly contested presidential election and is now preparing for his swearing-in.

The loss of life in the Iraq blast was the worst in the history of Ukraine's participation in international peacekeeping missions.

The Ukrainian troops are under the command of Poland, which has the third-largest contingent in Iraq after the US and Britain. Warsaw says it is likely to also withdraw in 2005 but no specific date has been given.