US report will not change UK withdrawal from Iraq

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown's office said this week that the report by General David Petreaus on the US troops "surge" in Iraq will not change the British government's decisions on its deployment.

The government's position on Iraq "remains unchanged," Brown's spokesman said Tuesday. It comes after Defense Secretary Des Brown updated the weekly cabinet meeting on the situation.

The Petreaus report, claiming success in the US 'surge' strategy was widely considered helpful to the UK government as it seeks to speed up its withdrawal following last week's pull out from Basra, even though the two countries are using different strategies.

The spokesman said, Brown told the cabinet that Britain has "ongoing obligations and we will fulfill those obligations." Both the US and UK approaches were "entirely consistent," he insisted.

The British premier and US President George W. Bush had held a "cordial and constructive" video conference on Monday, he said. The direct talks were thought to be the first since they met at Camp David in July.

According to epolitix news service, the spokesman said the general approaches taken by the US and UK were consistent as they both rely on the "readiness" of Iraqi forces to take control of security, on the advice of military commanders on the ground.

The Conservative shadow foreign secretary William Hague was also quoted saying that any decision concerning US troop levels is a matter for the US.

But Hague added he hoped that decisions on both the US and UK deployments in Iraq are "always made in consultation with each other." On Monday Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell also said the report "changes nothing from the standpoint of the United Kingdom." "There is no case for the continuing open-ended commitment of British forces," said Campbell, who party, unlike the Labor government and the Conservatives, opposed the 2003 invasion.