About 550 Australian combat troops in Iraq should be withdrawn by about the middle of next year, Prime Minister-elect Kevin Rudd said today, setting a broad timetable for the soldiers to return home.

Australia has about 1500 troops in and around Iraq, but Mr Rudd won power at Australia's national election with a promise to bring front-line forces home.

"The combat force in Iraq we would have home by around the middle of next year," Mr Rudd told Australian radio.