LONDON, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- British Defense Secretary
Des Browne said on Monday that British troops in Iraq would be "significantly
lower by thousands" at the end of next year.
Addressing at the Royal Institute of International
Affairs, a leading think tank in UK, Browne said, "by the end of next year, I
expect numbers of British forces in Iraq to be significantly lower by a matter
of thousands."
In Rome, Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said
earlier Monday that Italy will complete its troop withdrawal from Iraq by Dec. 2
after the last soldiers turn over their base in southern Iraq to Iraqi forces.
Browne, whose country is a close ally of the United
States in operations in Iraq, said "the planning for this (troop reduction in
Iraq) has been going on for some months, and I have been pressing our planners
to look at all the options, to make sure we do not ask a single soldier to
remain in Iraq longer than is necessary."
"In the end of course, it must depend on conditions
on the ground, including the level of threat and the capacity of Iraqis to deal
with it, and the final decision will be down to our commanders," he said.
During the speech, Browne expressed hope that local
Iraqi troops would take control of Basra in the south of the country in the
spring, and he also restated Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett's statement that
British-controlled Maysan province could transfer to Iraqi control in January,
followed by Basra shortly afterward.
But he stressed that a handover of troops did not
mean a withdrawal because the Iraqis would still need back-up.
"We need to be clear that handover does not mean
withdrawal," the secretary said, adding "even when all of the provinces are
handed over we will still be providing a force to mentor and back up the Iraqi
army and police, and to protect Coalition supply routes."
Currently, Britain has some 7,000 troops in southern
Iraq, most in the Basra area and about 800 in Maysan province. Since 2003, there
are 126 British soldiers killed in Iraq.
