(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-12-10 15:08

LONDON - Britain will hand over Basra province to Iraqi control within two weeks, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said during a surprise trip to southern Iraq Sunday, his Downing Street office said.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown speaks to soldiers as he makes a surprise visit to troops stationed at Basra Air Station in Iraq. [Agencies]

Addressing troops in the southern Iraqi city, Brown said that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was recommending "a move to provincial Iraqi control within two weeks", a spokesman in London said.

"I have just talked to Prime Minister Maliki, and he has asked me to pass on his thanks to you for what you have done to help rebuild the democracy of Iraq," Brown said, according to the spokesman.

"It's because of all the operations we have done over the past few months that the security situation has not only improved, but he is now recommending a move to provincial Iraqi control within two weeks."

Britain has about 5,500 troops in southern Iraq, and Brown said in October that troop numbers would be cut by more than half to 2,500 by early next year as Iraqis assume control of Basra province.

"The prime minister came to address the troops," senior British military spokesman Major Mike Shearer told AFP by telephone from Basra.

"He was here for less than two-and-a-half hours. He wanted to show his gratitude to the troops for the work they have done in preparing the Iraqis to take on the mantle of provincial control in Basra.

"During the visit he telephoned Prime Minister Maliki. They agreed Basra should be transferred to Iraqi provincial control within two weeks."

No date has yet been fixed, Shearer said, adding that the transfer had long been set for mid-December. "We are still on schedule for that," he said.

About 500 British troops handed over their base at the Saddam-era Basra Palace in September after Iraqi security forces took control of the city, and they are now all stationed on a base just outside Basra city.

A parliamentary committee said Monday that Britain had failed in its original aim of bringing security to southern Iraq, and expressed concern about continued violence there and across the country.

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