Troops in Iraq 'to be scaled down'

Iraqi women collect water supplied by British troops

The number of UK forces still in Iraq could be "significantly reduced" by the end of the year, Defence Chief Admiral Sir Michael Boyce has told the BBC.

Of the 45,000-strong British personnel deployed in the Gulf, Sir Michael said as many as two thirds or more of the troops could be withdrawn by the close of 2003, depending on circumstances.

Asked if the British military could sustain keeping about 10,000 ground troops in Iraq, he told BBC Two's Newsnight a medium scale commitment was something they should be able to cope with.

But Sir Michael, who is retiring on Friday, said UK forces would need a year or so to recover from the Iraq conflict before they were "fully fit to fight again" on the same scale.

Saddam Hussein went out of his way to hide these weapons from us and I think it will take us a time to find them

Admiral Sir Michael Boyce

Sir Michael warns over new action

He also said just because weapons of mass destruction had not been found in Iraq, that did not mean they did not exist.

Speaking of the role of UK troops, he told the programme: "As soon as our people are not required I want to get them home but we're not going to do anything which is not sensible, it will depend on the situation on the ground".

However he said in south east Iraq the military was working well with town councils and local people on the streets.

Sir Michael continued: "Our defence planning assumptions look to us having an enduring medium scale commitment which roughly speaking 10,000 is".

He anticipated the military would need extra funding to restock in the wake of the Iraq war.

But he said the military had had a good financial settlement this year.

He said they had not yet found weapons of mass destruction but it was early days.

'Alarmist'

"Iraq is a very large country Saddam Hussein went out of his way to hide these weapons from us I think it will take us a time to find them", he said.

He was asked if he considered the government had been alarmist in claiming Saddam Hussein was ready to use weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes.

"He could have had some access, (to WMD) some capability which could have been assembled in that sort of time but I think the mass of his effort would have taken longer than that to prepare," he said.

As to the role of British troops in Iraq now, he said Britain was better prepared than any other country in the world for a peacekeeping role and helping with humanitarian aid in Iraq.

"We've had 35 years of experience of peace keeping operations and the like, from Northern Ireland, the Balkans and so forth," he said.