Britain will withdraw around 1,600 troops from Iraq over the coming months and aims to cut its 7,100 troop levels to below 5,000 by late summer _ if local forces can secure the southern part of the country, The Associated Press quoted Prime Minister Tony Blair as saying today. British troops will remain in Iraq until at least 2008 and work to secure the Iran-Iraq border and maintain supply routes to U.S. and coalition troops in central Iraq, Blair told the House of Commons. «The actual reduction in forces will be from the present 7,100 _ itself down from over 9,000 two years ago and 40,000 at the time of the conflict _ to roughly 5,500,» Blair said. He told lawmakers that «increasingly our role will be support and training, and our numbers will be able to reduce accordingly.» Blair said Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had agreed to the plan. Dependent on Iraqi capability Britain would draw down further, «possibly to below 5,000» once a base at Basra Palace is transferred to Iraqi control in late summer, Blair said.
