Blair to announce troop withdrawl timetable.

**kams** · 21 Feb 07, 01:59

Prime Minister Tony Blair is expected to announce a timetable for the withdrawal of UK troops from Iraq.

Mr Blair is due to make a statement about the 7,000 British troops serving in Iraq at the Commons on Wednesday.

The BBC's James Landale said 1,500 troops were expected to return home in months, rising to 3,000 by Christmas.

Downing Street has not confirmed the reports but Whitehall sources have told the BBC the process could be slowed down if the situation in Iraq worsens.

A Downing Street spokesman said: "It is right that the prime minister should update Parliament first."

However, White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe confirmed that President George W Bush had spoken to Mr Blair on Tuesday. Mr Bush recently announced plans to send 21,500 more US troops to Iraq.

Mr Johndroe said: "While the United Kingdom is maintaining a robust force in southern Iraq, we're pleased that conditions in Basra have improved sufficiently that they are able to transition more control to the Iraqis.

"The United States shares the same goal of turning responsibility over to the Iraqi Security Forces and reducing the number of American troops in Iraq."

BBC political correspondent James Landale said: "We have been expecting an announcement for some time on this."

However, he said reports that all troops will have returned home by the end of 2008 was "not a fair representation of what is true at the moment".

'Disastrous signal'

Our correspondent said senior Whitehall sources had told him that the pullout was "slightly slower" than they had expected and "if conditions worsen this process could still slow up".

Defence Secretary Des Browne said last November that the number of UK troops in Iraq was set to be "significantly lower by a matter of thousands" by the end of 2007.

Last month, the Liberal Democrats called for all UK troops to be withdrawn by October.

But Mr Blair said that to "set an arbitrary timetable... that we will pull British troops out in October, come what may... would send the most disastrous signal to the people we are fighting in Iraq".

Ok, Is it the beginning of the end game paving way to complete withdrawl of all foreign troops?

**kams** · 21 Feb 07, 02:04

More News...

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair is expected to announce on Wednesday that Britain will start to withdraw its troops from Iraq within weeks, British media said.

Blair would tell parliament 1,500 soldiers would leave by the summer, BBC News, the Sun tabloid and the Times reported. Britain has 7,100 troops in Iraq.

The Sun said the first batch would arrive home in April. A further 1,500 troops would be out by the end of the year.

The Financial Times, for its part, said Blair would first cut troop levels by 1,600, while the Guardian newspaper put the figure at 1,000, with all troops exiting by the end of 2008.

A spokesman at the prime minister's Downing Street office declined to comment, but said parliament would be updated first on any announcement about Iraq. The Ministry of Defense was not immediately available for comment.

Blair was expected to say the withdrawal reflected Britain's success in southern Iraq, where control of security is being handed back to Iraqi forces, according to the media reports.

President Bush, who spoke to Blair on Tuesday, was also upbeat about a British pull-out and said he hoped U.S. forces could follow suit when conditions allowed.

"President Bush sees this as a sign of success and what is possible for us once we help the Iraqis deal with the sectarian violence in Baghdad," Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said.

"While the United Kingdom is maintaining a robust force in southern Iraq, we're pleased that conditions in Basra have improved sufficiently that they are able to transition more control to the Iraqis," he said.

In contrast to London, Washington is sending 21,500 more troops to Iraq as part of Bush's new strategy.

Full story

**Ray** · 22 Feb 07, 06:56

Iraq leader welcomes troops' exit

Some 7,000 UK troops are currently serving in Iraq

Tony Blair's plan to recall 1,600 British troops from Iraq within the next few months has been welcomed by the country's president.

Jalal Talabani's spokesman said it was a "welcome catalyst" that would force Iraqi forces to take responsibility for the country's security.
BBC NEWS | UK | UK Politics | Iraq leader welcomes troops' exit

Catalyst indeed - while the cat is away, the mice are at play!

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