Britain to reduce its Iraq force by 800

LONDON - Britain said today it would trim its force in Iraq by 10 per cent and that the process of handing over security responsibility for swathes of territory to Iraqi forces could begin within weeks.

Defence Secretary John Reid said plans to cut Britain's troop numbers by 800 in the next few months did not amount to pulling out from whole areas of Iraqi territory. But he said a bigger decision could come soon.

"This is not a result of the big handover or the start of that process," Reid told reporters shortly before announcing the troop cuts in parliament.

But he said a panel of Iraqis and members of the US-led coalition would meet in a few weeks to "assess progress and look at whether conditions have been met for some provinces" to be turned over to Iraqi forces.

"That stays under review, and at some stage - I predicted last year that at some stage in the course of this year - if conditions are right we may hand over full operational control of whole areas to the Iraqi forces," said Reid.

Britain, like the United States, has long said it hopes to withdraw troops from Iraq as local security forces improve their capabilities.

British forces operate in the south, where the population is mainly Shi'ite and have therefore not had to fight a Sunni insurgency like that in US-patrolled areas in the north.

The south includes areas widely seen as likely to be among the first where international troops withdraw. But British military commanders have also complained about a worsening security situation since the middle of last year because of Shi'ite sectarian militiamen employing deadlier roadside bombs and infiltrating local police forces.

In leaked documents from mid-2005, Reid discussed the possibility that most British troops could be home by the middle of 2006, but no formal announcement of large cuts has been made and that tentative timetable appears to have slipped.

The scale of Britain's military commitment in Iraq has been the focus of new attention in the past month after Reid announced an ambitious new three-year mission in southern Afghanistan, set to peak at 5700 troops in mid 2006.

Some military experts worry that operating two large-scale missions at once could put too much strain on British forces. Reid has repeatedly denied that commitments in Afghanistan affect Britain's deployment in Iraq or vice versa.

A British defence ministry source said decisions on handing over provinces to Iraqi control could not be taken until a new government in Baghdad was formed and its representatives joined coalition commanders in the committee assessing Iraqi progress.

But he said "we are reasonably confident" that the handover of some provinces could begin quickly once the body met.

Reid said Britain was now able to reduce its force because British troops had succeeded in training Iraqis to do some of their tasks: for example, newly trained Iraqi instructors could in turn train new recruits.

"This isn't the handover. That will come if conditions permit. But what it does illustrate is that on the way to that handover we are making progress."

- REUTERS