Iraq seeks way out of British troop pact impasse

By Waleed Ibrahim

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The Iraqi government and lawmakers struggled to find a way on Sunday to allow non-U.S. foreign forces to remain in Iraq next year after parliament rejected a law that would have sanctioned their presence.

The law setting an end-July withdrawal date for British, Australian, Romanian, Estonian, Salvadoran and NATO soldiers was rejected because parliament said foreign relations could not technically be governed by simple legislation.

Iraq needed an agreement or a treaty for that, the lawmakers said, demanding the government negotiate something similar in format to the U.S.-Iraq security pact that allows 140,000 or so U.S. troops in Iraq to stay for three more years.

One option being discussed was for parliament to pass a resolution giving the foreign forces temporary permission to be in Iraq until a treaty is reached, said deputy Ridha Jawad Taqi of the Shi'ite Alliance, part of the ruling coalition.

Anything else would take too long, he said.

"We don't have time. The authorization for these forces must be released before the end of this year," he said. "The problem with this is the British and Australians. They want parliamentary cover for the presence of their forces." The deals covering the presence of foreign troops replace a U.N. mandate, which expires at the end of the year, and also mark the beginning of the end of the Iraq war, more than five years after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

The ethnic slaughter and insurgent violence unleashed by the invasion have dropped significantly over recent months although suicide and car bombs remain common.

From next year, Iraqi police and soldiers will take the lead in ensuring security. U.S. combat forces will have to leave Iraqi cities and villages by the end of June and will not be able to conduct operations without Iraqi permission.

The separate deal covering the British, Australian and other forces involves a far smaller number of foreign troops.

Only 4,100 British soldiers remain, based mainly around the southern city of Basra and its oil fields and oil ports, compared to more than 40,000 at the time of the invasion. The number of Australian and other troops is far smaller.

Under the draft law agreed by the Iraqi cabinet, the British and other forces would cease operations by the end of May and leave Iraq completely by the end of July. Some British military trainers would remain behind, British officials say.

Few Iraqi lawmakers appeared to oppose the timetable.

The proposed resolution would insist on the government maintaining the same withdrawal dates in an eventual treaty or agreement, said Salim al-Jubouri, a spokesman for the Accordance Front, the main Sunni Arab bloc in parliament.

"I believe the parliamentary blocs will accept this proposal. There is no real resistance to this proposal inside the parliament," he said.

(Writing by Michael Christie; Editing by Sami Aboudi)