Britain hopes to pull out most of its troops from Iraq by 2008 under a phased withdrawal plan, which will begin within months, the country's top army officer has said.
The withdrawal plan is prompted by the confidence that Iraq's 225,000 soldiers and police officers can soon maintain order without assistance, Lt Gen Nick Houghton, seen as one of the Army's rising stars and second in command of forces in Iraq, said.
Most British troops should have been withdrawn from Iraq by the summer of 2008 under a phased plan, he told the Daily Telegraph newspaper, adding that the first movement of troops can come within weeks.
The process will involve a four-stage disengagement that is scheduled to begin this spring, or at the latest by the end of the summer, he said.
The general said that a gradual withdrawal needed to begin soon to ensure that the Iraqi people understood that British troops had no intention of staying forever. "There is a fine line between staying too long and leaving too soon. A military transition over two years has a reasonable chance of avoiding the pitfalls of overstaying our welcome but gives us the best opportunity of consolidating the Iraqi security forces," he said.
Houghton emphasised that the timing will work only if newly elected Iraqi politicians formed a national unity government and that sectarian tensions did not worsen. A defence ministry spokesman told the daily that the general had made it clear that all of this was conditional and was outlining possible scenarios for the hand-over. "The key point is that no decisions on timing or force levels have been taken," he said.
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