By IRNA
London : The US administration is becoming increasingly concerned about the impact of an imminent British withdrawal from southern Iraq and would prefer UK troops to remain for another year or two, according to a press report.
Reporting from Washington, the Guardian newspaper said that the US was worried about the political consequences of losing British troops.
“If the difference is between the British leaving at the end of the year or staying through to next year or the year after, it is a safe assumption that President Bush would prefer them to stay as long as the Americans are there,” a UK official was quoted saying.
Ken Pollack, a foreign affairs expert at the Washington-based Brookings Institution, said that Bush preferred the British to stay and predicted that US and Iraqi forces would have to go to fill the vacuum with the same level of commitment.
“What Bush needs is for there to be a Union Jack flying somewhere in Iraq so he can trumpet that as full British participation, but that participation has been meaningless for some time,” Pollack said.
Britain is expected to shortly complete the handover of control to Iraqi authorities in Basra that will pave the way for a further reduction of troops as they change their role to one of mainly just surveillance.
On Monday US vice-president, Dick Cheney, warned against an early withdrawal, saying “No one could plead ignorance of the potential consequences of walking away from Iraq now, withdrawing coalition forces before Iraqis can defend themselves.”