US President George W. Bush has arrived in Iraq today on an unannounced visit.
US President Bush surveys a map of Iraq on his arrival at an air base in Iraq today. Image: Reuters.
Mr Bush landed at al-Asad Air Force base, west of Baghdad in Anbar province, along with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defence Secretary Robert Gates and national security adviser Steven Hadley.
The president is on his way to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum conference in Australia and is due in Sydney tomorrow.
Mr Bush's visit follows the announcement by the British military today that it has completed its withdrawal from the southern Iraqi city of Basra today.
It is relocating forces from a palace in the city centre to a large base at the airport on the oil hub's outskirts.
The pullout from the base at Basra Palace, which was built for Saddam Hussein, is another step towards handing over Basra province to Iraqi control and paving the way for an eventual withdrawal of British forces from Iraq.
Iraqi soldiers are now on guard outside the main gate into the palace.
The British Ministry of Defence said handing over the palace "has long been our intention". It said British forces would retain overall security responsibility for Basra until the handover to provincial Iraqi control, expected towards the end of the year.
Britain has already handed over three other provinces in southern Iraq to Iraqi authorities amid a surge in attacks that have killed 41 British soldiers this year.
The pullout also comes amid bitter recriminations between former US and British generals over the Iraq conflict.
Britain's foreign and defence ministers published an editorial in a US newspaper last week defending Britain's role in the face of suggestions in US media that British forces had failed in Basra and were set to flee.
The British forces reject criticism that they have allowed Iraq's gateway to the Gulf to fall into the hands of Shia militias and that their withdrawal from Basra Palace signals their defeat.
Basra has witnessed a turf war between rival Shia groups, including supporters of Moqtada al-Sadr, the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council and smaller Fadhila party, mainly for political supremacy and control of illegal oil traffic.
While residents say there is now a fragile calm between the groups, there are fears the British withdrawal will be accompanied by an upsurge in factional violence.