British Finance Minister Gordon Brown, eager to boost his credentials as prime minister in waiting, flew into Iraq for the first time today and pledged an extra £100 million to help rebuild the country.
Brown, on a surprise visit to British troops in southern Iraq, suggested that their numbers could be reduced over the next few months as the Baghdad government takes over fuller control.
Asked if the Democrats' victory in the US mid-term elections this month could hasten a pullout, he told said: "This is a rich country with a rich future.
"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."
Brown said he had met the Iraqi deputy prime minister and finance minister to discuss a series of infrastructure projects that would get "people back to work and give a signal to the world that Iraq is going to run its own affairs."
"What I'm saying today is we could provide an extra £100 million over the next three years to help with the economic regeneration programme," Brown said.
That sum is in addition to the £544 million that Britain will have spent on economic regeneration in Iraq by the end of 2006.
Travelling with Britain's chief of the armed forces Sir Jock Stirrup, Brown said the government, whose Iraq policy has sent its popularity plummeting, was committed to supporting the Iraqis in building a democratic nation.
He said it was vital to isolate the extremists in Iraq and create jobs so that people realised violence destroyed any chance of prosperity in the oil-rich country.