CANBERRA, Australia (AP) – Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the Australian defense minister are playing down the potential for friction between the two allies over the new Australian government’s pledge to withdraw combat troops from Iraq.

Gates said he values the role the Australians have played in Iraq, but realizes that the size of the Australian deployment had put stress on its military.

“We’re concerned about the stress on our own forces. The Australians are confronting that challenge themselves,” Gates said Friday, speaking to reporters en route to Canberra and ahead of talks that got under way Saturday with Australian officials at Parliament House.

The U.S. has about 156,000 troops in Iraq. Australia, which under its previous government sent 2,000 troops to support U.S. and British forces in the Iraq invasion, plans to withdraw 550 combat soldiers in the middle of this year.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd – a leading opponent of his country’s involvement in the Iraq war – was elected in November after promising to keep foreign policy independent of the United States.

Defense Minister Joel Fitzgibbon said Friday, however, that the change of government has not shaken Americans’ confidence in a key ally.

“I don’t think there’s a need to be doing any trust-building at the AUSMIN meeting tomorrow,” Fitzgibbon said, using the acronym for the Australia-United States Ministerial Consultations, which have been held for more than 20 years.

“The relationship remains very, very strong,” he said. “The level of trust has never been higher and I look forward to working forward together with our American friends.”