The White House removed Costa Rica from its Internet list of Iraq coalition members on Friday after the Central American nation asked to be excluded from the roster of countries that support US policy in Iraq.
The San Jose government told US officials last week that it wanted out of the Bush administration's so-called "coalition of the willing" because of domestic pressures in Costa Rica, where the war is unpopular.
Costa Rican officials specifically asked the White House to drop its name from a coalition list posted on the Web site, www.whitehouse.gov. But the list remained unchanged for more than a week.
"We took the concerns of the Costa Rican people with the utmost seriousness and removed their name from our Web site. We did it as fast as possible," a senior administration official said. Costa Rica, which abolished its army in 1949, did not provide troops or aid for the Iraq occupation.
Most Central American nations backed the US-led invasion and Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador sent troops.