UK's Blair vows to stand firm on Iraq strategy

LONDON, Oct 18 (Reuters) Prime Minister Tony Blair said today there would be no shift in his strategy of keeping British troops in Iraq until homegrown forces were capable of ensuring security, despite mounting criticism.

Blair, Washington's staunchest ally in the war that ousted Saddam Hussein, said UK soldiers would withdraw progressively from the war-torn country but to pull out immediately would be ''disastrous''.

''It is our policy to withdraw progressively from Iraq as the Iraqi forces are capable of taking on the security task,'' Blair told parliament as opposition leaders pressed him to accept the government's policy on Iraq may need rethinking.

''That is why it is important, when we are able to hand over to them, that we do so. Otherwise, of course, we are a provocation, rather than a help, to them,'' Blair added, asked if the presence of UK troops in Iraq was exacerbating violence.

Blair and US President George W Bush are facing a barrage of criticism over Iraq as the death toll rises.

Last week, the chief of Britain's army, General Richard Dannatt, sparked a political storm when he said UK troops should withdraw from Iraq soon as their presence was worsening the security situation there and in the wider world.

Blair, whose popularity ratings have plummeted over the divisive war, has said there is no disagreement between himself and the general over strategy in Iraq.

In a second implicit criticism of policy in Iraq by top brass, Brigadier Ed Butler, the outgoing commander of UK forces in Afghanistan, said yesterday the decision to divert forces to invade Iraq cost years of progress in Afghanistan.

In the United States, former Secretary of State James Baker is preparing to publish a bipartisan study on alternatives to current policy in Iraq as the aftermath of the war threatens to damage Bush's Republicans in November 7 congressional elections.

The US military announced today the deaths of 10 US soldiers in Iraq the previous day.

Blair said British troops in Iraq were doing vital work and it would be a ''gross dereliction of our duty'' to leave abruptly.

''I do not want to either dismay our allies or hearten our enemies by suggesting that we will do anything else other than stay until the job is done,'' he said.

He said he still believed London could withdraw ''significant'' numbers of troops over the next 12-18 months.

REUTERS AB RN1916