"Sooner or later, we've got to go," said the leader of the Liberal Democrats yesterday, after a meeting with members of the Scots-Iraqi community in an Edinburgh cafe.

SIR Menzies Campbell emerged from a meeting with members of the Scots-Iraqi community yesterday to say the stories the women had told him from relatives in the Gulf confirmed the need for a withdrawal strategy for US and British forces.

"Sooner or later, we've got to go," said the leader of the Liberal Democrats after the meeting in an Edinburgh cafe. "We talk about this subject in the abstract, but when you hear from these women the unimaginable horrors, it brings home to you the responsibility we have for having created these conditions, against all the advice at the time. That is the tragedy of this."

Iman Twaij, daughter of a Scottish mother and Iraqi father said: "I keep hoping that one day this nightmare will be over, but I fear that as long as the troops are there, there will continue to be trouble," she said.

Selma Mitchell, who is married to a Scot, spoke of relatives in Baghdad now taking three and four hours to make a half hour journey, under constant threat of sniper fire. "I fear for a total disaster," she said: "I don't know what will happen. I just can't see any way out of this."

Sir Menzies said there should be immediate negotiations to hand over power to the Iraqis followed by a military withdrawal within months, accompanied by regional diplomacy and economic aid to rebuild public services.

"I think we can stand by Iraq in ways other than our military presence," he said.