Schedule for UK pull-back from Iraq takes shape

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain has no fixed timetable for withdrawing its 5,500 troops from Iraq but a rough schedule for drawing down numbers is emerging amid high-level negotiations with Washington over policy.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown held talks with General David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, on Tuesday and is due to make a statement on Iraq to parliament early next month when his strategy is likely to be further fleshed out.

With no serious increase in violence in Basra since Britain pulled 500 soldiers out of the city centre two weeks ago -- moving them to the airport on the city outskirts -- a 10 percent drawdown of troops will happen in the next six weeks.

"We're looking to reduce numbers in Basra by 500 by November," a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense said on Wednesday, saying the reduction would take place as part of the regular rotation of troops.

The focus will then be on transferring responsibility for the province that includes Basra to Iraqi authorities by the end of the year, which would complete the handover of power in all four provinces for which Britain was once responsible.

Once the handover is complete, Britain's remaining 5,000 troops would be on "overwatch", meaning they would mostly be responsible for training Iraqi forces and would "go offensive" only if there was a serious breakdown in security. They would also continue to protect supply routes in southern Iraq.

The more problematic issue in the longer term will be reducing numbers below 5,000 during 2008 given that the airport complex where they are based requires a large force to keep its perimeter protected and air operations running.

The Ministry of Defense has said any further drawdown or withdrawal beyond the 500 to be pulled out by November will be "conditions-based", meaning that if it is deemed safe to do so and is coordinated with the U.S. command, it can happen.

"At some point in the new year, we'll have to look at what the situation on the ground is and decide, in consultation, where we go from there," the spokesman said.

In the meantime, U.S. and British military commanders are holding regular discussions on security and how any handover of power to Iraqis should be carried out. During his visit to Britain, Petraeus dismissed recent unsourced reports out of Washington in which Britain's role in Iraq was criticized.

A spokesman for the prime minister said the talks on Monday, which also involved Britain's foreign secretary, David Miliband, and the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, had "gone well".

"People are discussing the specifics of how the handover would work," a Downing Street spokesman said, referring to the transfer of responsibility for Basra province to Iraqis.

"But it's got to be tied to conditions on the ground being such that that planning can go ahead."

(Additional reporting by Sophie Walker and Adrian Croft)