Iraq govt wants steady transfer of control, UK

LONDON, May 25 (Reuters) Iraq's leadership wants a steady transfer of security to Iraqi forces and no one in government urged an immediate withdrawal of US-led forces on a trip to Iraq by Prime Minister Tony Blair, an official said today.

Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said this week that Iraqi forces could take over security by the end of 2007, although Washington and London are concerned a hasty departure could risk civil war.

''No member of the government there asked us to withdraw immediately,'' Blair's official spokesman said. ''What they want is a steady transfer of control.'' Blair, who was the staunchest ally of US President George W. Bush over Iraq, travels to Washington today for talks about Iraq, Iran and West Asia peace process.

The spokesman said Blair would relay his experiences from Iraq, when he met the country's new government and agreed a troop withdrawal timetable -- albeit heavily conditioned on the ability of Iraqi forces to control security.

''The prime minister's main perspective in going will be the impressions he has brought from his visit to Iraq,'' he said.

Iraq's prime minister said during Blair's visit to Baghdad that Iraqi forces could take charge of security in two provinces next month and could be in control of all but two of Iraq's 18 provinces by December.

GREATER SUPPORT FOR IRAQ Blair's visit to Washington had been long planned but was delayed until Iraq's government was finalised on Saturday.

The two leaders will also discuss the need for the international community and the United Nations to give greater support to Iraq's fledgling government, the spokesman said.

Blair will stress that message in a speech in Washington tomorrow, when he will call for reform of international bodies such as the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund and the Group of Eight club of rich countries.

He will say international agencies must be fit to meet the challenges of globalisation, greater economic interdependence and a world in which ''we shouldn't be afraid to stand up for a process of democratisation'', the spokesman said.

''That means changes in organisations, in the UN, including the Security Council, in the IMF, to make them more transparent in the way they operate and more representative as well, but also to reflect the greater political will to take on hard issues, not duck them,'' he will say, according to his spokesman.

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