By ANTARA News,
Baghdad : The Iraqi parliament voted on Tuesday to allow the presence of non-US foreign troops after December 31, giving British troops a legal basis to remain beyond the expiry of a UN mandate.
A vast majority of the 223 MPs in attendance voted to approve the resolution, a parliamentary source told AFP, but the exact breakdown was not immediately available.
The United States, which supplies 95 percent of foreign troops in Iraq, has already signed a Status of Forces Agreement with the Baghdad government, under which its combat forces can remain in the country until the end of 2011.
During a surprise visit to Iraq last week, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that his country`s troops would wrap up their mission by the end of May and later said that all but 400 would be out by the end of July.
There are currently 4,100 British troops in Iraq concentrated around Basra airport in the south.
Australia, El Salvador, Estonia and Romania also have small numbers of troops in Iraq.