British Prime Minister Tony Blair, on a lightning trip to Iraq, said today that the situation was entirely different from a year ago and signalled Britain could start scaling down its troop presence in six months.
Mr Blair, on his fourth trip to Iraq since the 2003 USled invasion, said good progress was being made in training Iraqi security and police forces to protect the country.
The ability of Iraqis to manage the country's security is the key condition for the 8,000 British troops, most of them stationed in the southeast near Basra, to return home.
Asked if six months was a viable time for a withdrawal to begin, Mr Blair said: "If everything goes to plan. It is our strategy, we want to draw down our own forces."
"This is a completely different situation from the situation a year ago," Mr Blair told reporters at Shaiba logistics base near Basra, home to half the UK contingent in Iraq.
But he said they could only leave once Iraqis were able to keep the peace.
"You don't set an arbitrary timetable. You assess when the job is done," he said. Mr Blair met US and British military chiefs to discuss the security situation after last week's Iraqi election. General George Casey, US military commander in Iraq, told him that by summer 2006, Iraqis will be in charge of 75 per cent of security in some areas.
Mr Blair told the troops they were helping to secure Iraq, the region and the wider world against terrorism.
"The only way to do that is to provide security so the Iraqi forces can build up, and then we can eventually draw down on our own capability."
After flying low over southern oilfields in a Merlin helicopter, from Basra airport to the army base, Mr Blair mingled with troops and was serenaded by a group of Fijian soldiers in what commanders said was an impromptu performance.
He also broke through the ranks of British staff to greet Iraqi mechanics and engineers before addressing the troops from the top of a mobile tank carrier.
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