The four Lithuanians were the tipping point in the surge-

It was always a ridiculous concoction, and now the Coalition of the Willing is boiling down to the Coalition of Nations That Ain't Got Sense to Come In Out of the Dark.

President Bush's “coalition of the willing” is set to all but disappear from Iraq by the end of the year, with 13 countries, including South Korea, Japan, Moldova and Tonga preparing to withdraw their few remaining troops.

Britain, Australia, Romania, Estonia and El Salvador are the only nations, apart from the US, that plan to remain after a UN mandate authorising their presence expires on December 31.

London must still reach an agreement with Baghdad, however, to keep its 4,100-strong contingent on the ground into the new year. Failure to do so in time would leave British troops without legal cover and they too would have to leave.

“We are going to say farewell to 13 different nations in the space of two and a half weeks,” said Brigadier-General Nicolas Matern, a deputy commander for Multi-National Corps Iraq, which oversees the US military's coalition partners.

“We started off with 35 countries but it has steadily been going down ... As from December it is going to go all the way down,” he told The Times.“We started off with 35 countries but it has steadily been going down ... As from December it is going to go all the way down,” he told The Times.