IRAQ: British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said yesterday British troops were likely to stay in Iraq for years, possibly until 2007, to try to stabilise a country in the face of an insurgency against occupying forces.
With guerrillas staging daily attacks on US-led forces in Iraq, Poland's president said NATO may decide in June whether to take on more of the burden. But NATO's new secretary-general said the alliance's top priority for the moment was Afghanistan.
While other countries including Poland have contingents in Iraq, US troops form the vast majority of occupation forces.
Britain was Washington's chief ally in the March invasion despite domestic opposition and has more than 10,000 troops there.
Speaking on BBC radio a day after Prime Minister Tony Blair paid a surprise visit to British soldiers in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, Straw said it was "a fact" that substantial numbers of troops would remain in Iraq for a long time to come.
"I can't give you an exact timescale...but it's not going to be months, for sure," Mr Straw said. Asked whether it would be years, he replied: "Yes, but I can't say whether it's going to be 2006 or 2007." US administrators in Iraq have set a timetable to transfer power to Iraqis by the end of June but say foreign troops will stay on after the handover.
During his visit to Basra, Mr Blair urged soldiers to concentrate on winning the peace and indicated they would be there for the long haul.
Mr Straw said British troops were key to providing stability for a political process that includes plans to select an Iraqi national assembly by the end of May. "If we were suddenly to pull out, there would unquestionably be a security vacuum," he said. "And that would not only put lives at risk...but it would also be a setback for the political process."
Some 45,000 British troops were part of the original invasion force, the largest British deployment since the Korean war 50 years ago. Twenty British soldiers have died in combat since the invasion began. The United States has suffered more than 330 combat deaths in that time, over 200 of them since major fighting was declared over on May 1st.
Washington wants more countries to send troops to Iraq and is pressing for a greater role for NATO. Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski said NATO could decide the issue in June.
"Talks are under way. A good moment to make certain decisions on the issue will be NATO's summit in Turkey in late June," he said at a ceremony for troops heading to Iraq to relieve the 2,500-strong Polish contingent.
But the new NATO secretary-general, Mr Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, said Afghanistan, not Iraq, was his first priority.
"Iraq of course will also be on the agenda at a certain stage, but let's take the events step by step," Mr Scheffer said as he arrived at NATO headquarters to take up his post.
NATO took over the mission in Afghanistan after the US-led campaign to oust the ruling Taliban in 2001. Unlike that mission, the Iraq war polarised the alliance with France and Germany, leading fierce opposition to the invasion.