Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his Iraqi counterpart, Nouri Maliki, said today that UK forces will have "completed their tasks" in the first half of 2009 and will then leave the country.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his Iraqi counterpart, Nouri Maliki, said today that UK forces will have "completed their tasks" in the first half of 2009 and will then leave the country.
The two leaders made the announcement in a joint statement released as they held talks in Baghdad.
They said: "The role played by the UK combat forces is drawing to a close. These forces will have completed their tasks in the first half of 2009 and will then leave Iraq."
The premiers added that the partnership between the two countries would continue.
Yesterday, the Iraqi council of ministers agreed a new resolution allowing British troops to remain in the country until the end of July.
Their current United Nations mandate expires at the end of the month.
British officials say the resolution merely set a last possible date for the vast majority of Britain's 4,100-strong contingent to be gone.
Mr Brown confirmed the outlines of the plans today before updating the House of Commons in greater detail tomorrow.
The Prime Minister is being accompanied on the visit by the Air Chief Marshall Sir Jock Stirrup, the Chief of the Defence Staff.
Speaking at a press conference after the talks, Mr Brown indicated that military operations would be over by the end of May. The withdrawal would then take place until around July.
"We have agreed today that the mission will end no later than the 31st of May next year," Mr Brown said. "Our troops will be coming home within the next two months (after that)."
He went on: "The biggest reduction will be at the end part of the period we are talking about."
Mr Maliki confirmed that the agreement included a provision for the Iraqi government to request an extension of the British military presence. However, both leaders indicated that it was not expected to be used.
Mr Brown said: "It is important to remember we have been engaged in the most difficult and challenging of work.
"The tasks of overthrowing a dictatorship, the task of building a democracy for the future and defending it against terrorism.
"We have made a huge contribution and of course given people an economic stake in the future of Iraq. We leave Iraq a better place."
He added: "I am proud of the contribution British forces have made. They are the pride of Britain and the best in the world."
Asked when the Government would hold a full inquiry into the Iraq war, the PM's spokesman said that would happen when the "time is right".
"As we have set out in the past, we do not believe it would be right to have an inquiry whilst our troops are still engaged in operations in Iraq," the spokesman added.
A spokesman for the Stop The War Coalition said: "The British withdrawal from Iraq comes not before time.
"The war has been an unmitigated disaster for the Iraqi people, the soldiers, their families and the British military, and is the worst foreign policy disaster since the Suez crisis.
"An estimated one million Iraqis have lost their lives in this war, 136 British soldiers have died, and thousands of others have been maimed and injured in a conflict which was based on lies and deception. Those who launched it should be brought to account.
"Nor is the war over for the soldiers. Many will be posted to Afghanistan, an unwinnable war, according to senior British Army spokespeople."
Before going to Basra airport, where most of the UK troops are based, the Prime Minister took a 20 minute helicopter journey to the southern port of Umm Qasr.
There he met members of the Navy and Marines, who have been trying to secure the port, through which the majority of Iraqi oil is shipped.
He was given a tour of the Khor Az Zubayr waterway in an Iraqi Navy boat.
Speaking to reporters afterwards, Mr Brown hailed the progress made over the past year.
"This is a change which I think has been taking place quite radically over the last year," he said.
