In a latest sign of allied exit from Afghanistan, Belgian defense ministry official said on Sunday that his country had plans to halve the number of its troops in the war-torn country starting from January.

In a latest sign of allied exit from Afghanistan, Belgian defense ministry official said on Sunday that his country had plans to halve the number of its troops in the war-torn country starting from January.

"The main reduction will be in Kabul, where the minister has determined that our objective has been met by some distance," s Didier Deweerdt, a spokesman for Defense Minister Pieter De Crem, told AFP news agency.

Out of a total strength of 585 currently in the country, the 325-strong contingent of soldiers working to secure the airport in Kabul will fall to just 60, he said.
Others will also leave northern Kunduz province.

Deweerdt said the proposal, which he stressed has still to go before the caretaker Belgian government, was "in line with the policy of troop reductions announced by the United States and France" since last week.
"Their mission is over," De Crem told Belgian television of the Kabul airport contingent.

President Nicolas Sarkozy announced Friday that hundreds of French occupation troops, out of a 4,000 contingent, will be withdrawn from Afghanistan before the end of 2011, "in a proportional manner and in a timeframe similar to the pullback of the American reinforcements."

US President Barack Obama last week ordered all 33,000 US surge occupation troops home from Afghanistan by next summer and declared the beginning of the end of the war, saying the withdrawal would begin this July.