LOC14:24
11:24 GMT
BAGHDAD, Oct 19 (KUNA) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki has announced
on Sunday he would assign a negotiating team to discuss with the United
Kingdom the future of the 4,000-strong British force in south Iraq.
He made the announcement after meeting Britain's new Defense Secretary
John Hutton who made his first visit to Iraq.
The planned talks will take place ahead of the expiry of the United Nations
mandate for the Multi-National Force in Iraq on December 13, 2008, according
to a statement issued by the Iraqi cabinet here.
"The two sides have to reach an agreement on the future of the British
forces ahead of that date," the statement quoted Al-Maliki as saying.
Hutton, who took over the defense portfolio in Prime Minister Gordon
Brown's cabinet reshuffle on Oct. 3, said he brought a negotiating team to
review the situation of the British forces, mainly stationed at an air base
outside the southern Iraqi city of Basra.
UK Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Bill Rummell and Her Majesty's
Ambassador to Iraq Christopher Prentice had held preliminary talks on this
issue with Iraqi leaders.
The mission of British force in Basra will shift to backing and training
the Iraqi military in the southern governorate, Basra Governor Mohammad
Al-Wa'eli said in previous statements.
The force will also coordinate the economic process in the region,
Al-Wa'eli pointed out.
Hutton, who started his first visit to Iraq as UK defense chief earlier
Sunday, held talks with Al-Maliki on the British contributions to the
reconstruction of Iraq. (end)
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