British troop numbers in Iraq will be cut by 1,000 by the end of 2007, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Tuesday, shortly after arriving in Baghdad for talks with Iraqi officials. The comments came as Brown, on his first visit to the country since replacing Tony Blair, said the southern Basra region where British troops are deployed would be in full Iraqi control in two months, the UK Press Association (PA) said. Britain has been in command of coalition forces in the southern part of the country and has about 5,500 troops in Iraq. The United States has the highest troop deployment at about 168,000. --MORE
