UK troops "doing nothing" in Basra: Iraqi minister

LONDON (Reuters) - Iraq's foreign minister poured scorn on British forces in southern Iraq on Monday, saying they were "doing nothing" and had allowed the city of Basra to be overrun by militants.

Hoshiyar Zebari, speaking in an interview with Britain's Channel Four news, said foreign troops needed to stay engaged if Iraq was to be stabilized after five years of "rivers of blood".

Zebari said British troops had "disengaged" in Basra, the country's second largest city and major port, and that "the militia, the organized crime, is actually making havoc in the city". Asked if Britain needed to re-engage, he said:

"In my view they do. They should not just sit there and do nothing. There are certain responsibilities, especially at least until the end of this year," he said.

Britain has around 4,500 troops based in southern Iraq, almost all of them hunkered down on a fortified encampment at Basra air base just outside the city.

A garrison of around 500 troops was stationed at a palace in the centre of the city until late last year and tried to maintain order, but came under daily attack from militants.

They were pulled back to the air base on the urging of Iraqi commanders who said their presence in the city was causing more problems than it was solving.

After they withdrew, violence in the city, which is predominantly Shia Muslim and a stronghold of militants loyal to the Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, declined for several months, but has picked up again recently.

"The British have disengaged and now it's the Iraqi commanders or officials who are handling the security," Zebari said.

Britain had hoped to draw down at least half of the troops left in Iraq in the coming months, and possibly pull out the entire force by the end of the year, but those prospects are looking less likely because of renewed violence.

Zebari said foreign troops needed to stay.

"No country can afford to just abandon (Iraq)," he said, speaking three days ahead of the fifth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

"Over the past five years it has been five years of hope but of rivers of blood because of the conflict, because of the divisions, because of the legacy of the regime, because of the resistance we saw from extremism," he said.

(Reporting by Luke Baker; editing by Andrew Roche)