Beckett: Security handover key to Iraqi stability

Tuesday, 5 September 2006 12:00 AM

The handing over of responsibility for security in Iraq to the Baghdad government is "absolutely key" to improving the situation there, Margaret Beckett has said.

In her first visit to Iraq since becoming foreign secretary, she said that Iraqi security forces had already taken over control of one province from coalition troops, and "we hope and believe that that is a process that will continue".

It was "absolutely key that we see that responsibility being able to be exercised by the representatives of the elected government of Iraq," she told reporters following a meeting with deputy prime minister Barham Salih in Baghdad.

The Iraqi government is hoping that nearly half of the country's 18 provinces will be under domestic control by the end of the year, but Mr Salih said that coalition troops would remain as part of an "enduring partnership to defeat terrorism".

Last month, a senior UK commander said it was "perfectly feasible" for the 7,200 troops currently based in Iraq to be reduced to as little as 3,000 within the next year.

But speaking to BBC One's Lunchtime News today , Mrs Beckett said that despite the dangers to British troops - two soldiers were killed in Basra yesterday bringing the death toll to 117 - they would remain in Iraq as long as was necessary.

"It is going step by step as the Iraqis are ready to take over and one of the things that ministers in the Iraq government have been consistently saying to me today is that there cannot be a security vacuum in Iraq," she said.

"They will need the coalition forces until they themselves are ready to take over, which is just what we want to achieve."

She refused to comment on whether she thought Iraq was close to civil war, saying only that president Jalal Talabani had "said very clearly and categorically" that he did not believe this was the case.

Mrs Beckett's visit to Iraq is partly aimed at improving relations with the government and to show support for their efforts.

She told BBC News 24 this lunchtime that she had made clear that the UK was "doing everything we can.to try to assist those moves forward to success to a more peaceful, more prosperous and more secure Iraq".

Other discussions have centred on the economic challenge facing the Iraqi government, which include providing the country's population with reliable health and education services, not to mention water and electricity.

"We do not underestimate the challenges ahead. But we must not forget the progress made in the last 12 months in bringing the first democratically elected national unity government to the country, with a constitution voted for by the people," Mrs Beckett said last night.

"This government has made a good start over the past three months. Continued hard work and determination is required to help build a stable and peaceful future for Iraq."

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• foreign policy
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• iraq
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• middle east