By Xinhua
London : The US is preparing to pour thousands of extra troops into southern Iraq amid fears that British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is committed to withdraw British troops from the region early next year, according to a Sunday Telegraph report.
The White House and the Pentagon are understood to have drawn up detailed plans to secure that vital “umbilical cord” link road between Baghdad and Kuwait when the British depart, the report said.
Washington is also concerned that a British pullout will leave the border with Iran undefended.
Tensions are understood to have deepened between London and Washington after Brown’s recent visit to the US, amid fears that the prime minister is distancing himself from the Bush administration and its military objectives, it said.