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British PM says 1,000 troops
home from Iraq by Christmas
AFP
Tuesday October 02, 2007
Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced in Baghdad on
Tuesday that 1,000 British troops could be home from Iraq by Christmas
and Iraqi forces could take control of Basra within two months.
"I believe that by the end of the year the British forces
which have been 5,500 can be reduced to 4,500 and by Christmas
1,000 of our troops can be brought back to the UK for other purposes,"
Brown said on his maiden visit to Iraq as prime minister.
Asked if there would be a further reduction in early 2008, Brown
replied that there would be no further announcement for the time
being.
"We will make our decisions in the future based on our assessment
on the ground," he told reporters outside the British embassy
in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone.
(Article continues below)
He was upbeat about prospects of Iraqi forces taking control
of the southern province of Basra, where British troops have been
deployed since the US-led invasion in 2003.
"I believe that within the next two months we can move to
provincial Iraqi control (of Basra), that is Iraqis taking responsibility
of their own security," the prime minister said.
The visit, Brown's first to Iraq since taking over as prime minister
from Tony Blair on June 27, comes one month after Britain pulled
its force of 500 troops from Basra and handed over the southern
city to Iraqi control.
On arriving in the Iraqi capital early Tuesday, Brown went immediately
into talks with Iraqi counterpart Nuri al-Maliki and then Vice-President
Tareq al-Hashemi.
He said afterwards he had spoken to Maliki about political reconciliation
and had told him Britain was looking for further efforts to be
made by all parties in Iraq to come together.
The reconstruction of Iraq, he added, was "vital" and
Britain was proposing a Basra investment and development agency
to boost employment and increase security.
Brown later went into talks with top US general in Iraq David
Petraeus, American ambassador Ryan Crocker and Britain's General
Bill Rollo.
He said he would later fly to Basra to meet British troops.
The British military told AFP on Tuesday that Britain expects
to hand control of Basra over to Iraqi forces this autumn, hopefully
by the end of November.
British military spokesman Major Mike Shearer told AFP that the
pullout of troops from their headquarters at Basra Palace one
month ago meant Iraqi forces were already responsible for most
of the security in the port city.
"We reduced our operational footprint to allow Iraqi forces
to take an increasing lead in policing their own city but we have
retained responsibility," Shearer said.
"We expect them and the Iraqi government to agree to the
transfer of the province this autumn. We would like to think probably
the end of November," he told AFP by telephone from Basra.
Britain has already transferred control of three southern provinces
back to the Iraqis -- Maysan, Al-Muthanna and Dhiqar -- and Basra
is the final part of their mission.
Brown previously held talks with Maliki and President Jalal Talabani
on a fact-finding trip on June 11 when he was still finance minister.
Before that, he met British troops in Basra in November 2006.
Political observers believe announcements on cutting troop levels
could herald Brown calling an early general election and that
he could turn what was a political and electoral millstone for
Blair into an advantage at the ballot box.
Amid continued calls for a pullout and 170 British military fatalities
since 2003, Iraq has so far failed to impact on Brown's popularity
ratings in the opinion polls, despite his vote in favour of the
2003 invasion.
In policy terms, Brown has so far shown little divergence from
Blair on Iraq, although he has accepted the issue had been politically
"divisive" and that "mistakes" were made in
post-war planning and reconstruction.
On his last visit, Brown said there would be an increased emphasis
on the political and economic efforts to help Iraq under his leadership.
And in a move that was welcomed by Iraq war critics, he appointed
a number of opponents of the invasion to his cabinet inner circle,
including the former UN deputy secretary general Mark Malloch
Brown as a junior foreign minister.
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