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Blair is set to reduce troops in Iraq

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published February 21, 2007

LONDON - Prime Minister Tony Blair will announce today a new timetable for the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq, with 1,500 to return home in several weeks, the BBC reported Tuesday.

Blair will also tell the House of Commons during his regular weekly appearance that a total of about 3,000 British soldiers will have left southern Iraq by the end of 2007, if the security there is sufficient, the British Broadcasting Corp. said, quoting government officials who weren't further identified.

The BBC said Blair was not expected to say when the rest of Britain's forces would leave Iraq. Britain has 7,100 soldiers there.

Militarily, a British withdrawal isn't likely to have much effect on the stepped-up U.S. operation in Baghdad or the war with the Sunnis in Anbar province west of the Iraqi capital.

Blair and President Bush talked by video link Tuesday morning, and Bush views Britain's troop cutbacks as "a sign of success" in Iraq, said U.S. National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe.

[Last modified February 21, 2007, 00:35:33]