Brown maintaining security in South Iraq Zuzana Moravcova

As the British government outlined the first steps in a rethink of the war on terrorism in November, they decided to begin withdrawing their troops from Iraq.Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown made an unannounced visit to Basra in Iraq to mobilise troops and confirmed that Iraqi forces will take command of the last region under British control within two weeks. It was in accordance to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who recommends responsibility for security in southern Iraq to be handed over to local police and soldiers.Brown said they were able to move to provincial Iraqi control thanks to everything the soldiers had achieved.Britain believes there is going to be transition from a military mission in Iraq to one with a stronger economic component, aimed at bracing a country divided by war and years of neglect under Saddam Hussein. Earlier the Chancellor said it was crucial for Iraq to be seen to be 'running its own affairs' and offering £100m for economic reconstruction. Unemployment is supposed to be a factor in helping to recruit insurgents. In October, Tony Blair suggested that British forces could be home from Iraq within the next 12 to 18 months. "We have got to help the Iraqi economy get back on its feet so we can see Iraq running its own affairs, and we could see a reduction in troops over the next few months."A total of 173 members of British troops have died in Iraq since the invasion in March 2003.Due to the $12 billion annual price tag of operations in Iraq, Britain's participation in the invasion of Iraq led by U. S. and the ongoing presence of their troops is becoming strongly unpopular in Britain.

by Zuzana Moravcova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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