BRITAIN:British prime minister Tony Blair appeared to indicate there would be no further deployment of British troops to Iraq yesterday as US president George Bush prepared to unveil details of the new American "surge" to boost security in Baghdad.
Mr Blair was speaking during the first prime minister's questions of the new year, at which he received a sharp reminder that the political class in Britain is now increasingly focused on the timing of his departure from 10 Downing Street.
Attempting to exploit perceived differences between Mr Blair and his presumed successor, the Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell asked if they would have to await the arrival of Gordon Brown to provide "an independent" British foreign policy.
However, Mr Brown nodded in agreement as Mr Blair asserted that the alliance with the United States - like that with Europe - was in Britain's national interest.
Sir Menzies had first asked, since Mr Blair was in agreement with Mr Bush, how many British troops he would now be sending to Iraq. Mr Blair insisted he had no plans to increase the deployment in British-controlled Basra, where, he said, the situation was different in some crucial respects from that in the American sector around Baghdad.
"We do not have the same Sunni-Shia sectarian violence, we do not have al-Qaeda operating in the same way, and we do not have the Sunni insurgency operating in the same way," Mr Blair told MPs.
He continued: "There has been an operation that the British have been conducting over the past few months that will be completed in the next few weeks. That operation, I'm pleased to say, has been successful up to now. That will allow the Iraqis to take over more and more control of their own policing and security in Basra."
However, Sir Menzies countered with a warning to Mr Blair: "The assumption behind that answer is that there will be no displacement of terrorist activity from Baghdad to Basra, which is an assumption that is very difficult to make at this stage."