Iraqis will have veto over Coalition troop presence, says Blair

The new Iraqi government will decide whether troops stay in Iraq after the transfer of sovereignty, the Prime Minister said yesterday.

Speaking at his monthly press conference, Mr Blair said the change of sovereignty at the end of June would be a "genuine change".

"The issue of our troops remaining after then is an issue of necessity because they have to remain until the Iraqi capability is sufficiently developed," he said.

He added that no decision has been taken on sending more troops to Iraq.

Mr Blair said: "We must remain with this task in Iraq until the job is done because it is now of central importance to Iraq, to the wider region, to the stability of the world."

Turning to the situation in Afghanistan, Mr Blair said that the country was "going forwards" but there remains much to do.

There are now 5.5 million Afghani children in school, including over 2 million girls in school who were previously banned, he said. Two and a half million refugees have returned to Afghanistan.

"I've held several meetings on Afghanistan myself over the last few months in order to make sure that though the media focus, for perfectly understandable reasons, is on Iraq, we continue with the work in Afghanistan."

Shadow Foreign Secretary Michael Ancram has today called on the overnment to spelling out full details of the planned handover to Iraqi sovereignty at the end of June.

Despite Mr Blair's pledge that British troops will remain under UK commanders when final political control of coalition forces is transferred to the new Iraqi administration in Baghdad, Mr Ancram warned that other questions remained unanswered.

Mr Ancram said: "A lot of this is being made up as they go along and does not inspire confidence. The role of the Iraqi interim government and the role of the multi-national force, as well as the command role, is still not very clear. There are still many unanswered questions."

(gmcg)