Mr Howard has foreshadowed that Australian troops will provide back-up security to Iraqi forces in the area around Tallil, in the country’s south.
“We would continue to see a role out there for some of our forces in southern Iraq,” Mr Howard told reporters.
“The operations will be likely to be based in and around Tallil. The primary purpose would be to provide a security reinforcement or back-up for the Iraqi security forces and also an ongoing training role,” he said.
The announcement comes as the Japanese government decides whether they will withdraw a 600-member engineering task group from the Al Muthanna province, pending moves to transfer security in the area to Iraqi forces.
The Iraqi government is expected to announce the transfer of security responsibilities for some southern provinces from coalition forces to the new Iraqi military.
Japan’s foreign minister Taro Aso, Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe
and Defence chief Fukushiro Nukaga have met to discuss the withdrawal, but agreed they could not decide on when to begin moving their contingent until Iraqi authorities made an announcement.
“We have to wait and see the outcome of an Iraqi government security meeting," Mr Nukaga said after the meeting.
While southern Iraq is considered to be one of the safer regions in the country, Mr Howard admits the situation could change.
“I can only say that any operation in Iraq is dangerous and in agreeing to any new arrangements we will go to great lengths to satisfy ourselves that danger, consistent with the discharge of the responsibility our forces have, will be kept to an absolute minimum, he said.
“The deployments in southern Iraq historically have been less dangerous than in other parts of Iraq but that could always change if circumstances were to change.”
Australia currently maintains a small logistics base in Talill to aid the movement of personnel and supplies to Australia’s operation base, Camp Smitty, outside the Al Muthanna province capital of Samawah.
There are currently 460 Australian troops in the city of Samawah, protecting the Japanese contingent and training the Iraqi military.
Baghdad bakery workers seized
Meanwhile, gunmen have abducted 10 bakery workers in Baghdad, a day after 43 people died in the capital in a spate of attacks.
Police also found 17 bodies in an around the capital, including those of four women and a teenager who were handcuffed and shot in the head, and ten men showing signs of torture.
A massive hunt has also been launched for two US soldiers missing since Friday when they were abducted at gunpoint by masked militants.
Witnesses said they were captured after their Humvee vehicle came under fire at a checkpoint, in the volatile area south of Baghdad, with a third soldier dying in the attack. However the US has not commented.
Meanwhile, US and Iraqi troops have set up extra checkpoints in the rebel stronghold Ramadi, in a bid to deny freedom of movement to insurgents.
Ramadi has emerged as Iraq's biggest hotspot since a 2004 crackdown on militants in Fallujah.
US and Iraqi forces are battling a Sunni insurgency that erupted after Saddam Hussein's fall in 2003 and shows no sign of easing, despite the June 7 killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, and a security clampdown in the capital.
Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Bryan Salas said the operations are part of continuing efforts to restore stability in Ramadi.
"We are focusing on multiple sites used by the insurgents to plan and conduct terrorist attacks and store weapons," he told Reuters in an email.
"We have also set up additional checkpoints to restrict the flow of insurgents, but citizens will still be able to enter and leave the city," he said. "This is just one part of a long-term plan to restore stability to Ramadi."
US troops "kidnapped"
In Washington, the White House said it was aware of media reports that two US soldiers who went missing after an attack on their checkpoint on Friday were abducted by insurgents.
"We're aware of news accounts," spokesman Tony Snow said, but added the White House was "making no assumptions".
The Mujahideen Shura Council, which had pledged to continue what it described as the holy war against crusader forces until "doomsday", said in a statement that it was behind four Baghdad bombs on Saturday, out of the seven reported by police.
It described one attack, a car bomb at a checkpoint in east Baghdad that police said killed 11 people, as "a blessed operation that led to the torching of three cars and the killing of the soldiers around the building".
The council groups al-Qaeda in Iraq with other Sunni militia, and said it was also behind three other bombings.
Baghdad appeared relatively calm on Sunday, apart from the abduction of the bakery workers in a mainly Shi'ite district.