Britain moving to Iraq security handover-minister

LONDON, Oct 22 (Reuters) Britain is ''quite far down'' the road toward transferring responsibility for security in Iraq to national security forces but British troops will only leave when the job is done, Defence Secretary Des Browne said today.

Browne's comments came amid speculation of a possible change in U S strategy in Iraq because of unrelenting violence there.

Asked if Britain could speed up its handover of security duties to Iraqi forces in the south of the country, Browne told Sky television that Britain had been moving towards transition to the Iraqi government for some months.

''We're quite far down the process of transferring responsibility to the Iraqis ... We've handed over two of four provinces,'' said Browne, who was speaking during a visit to Afghanistan.

Events in the southern town of Amara suggested Iraqi security forces were able to deal with their own security, Browne said.

Fierce battles between militia gunmen and police killed at least 25 people in Amara last week. Some 700 Iraqi troops helped restore calm to the town. British forces were on standby to intervene but were not needed.

Browne was quizzed about an estimate by Foreign Office minister Kim Howells in a BBC interview yesterday that Iraqi soldiers and police officers would be ready to take over a lot of the work done by coalition troops within about a year.

But Browne refused to give a date for when British forces would leave Iraq. They would be out ''when the job is done'', he said.

''This is a process and not an event.'' U S President George W Bush met his top military commanders to discuss the Iraq war yesterday and said he would ''make every necessary change'' in tactics to control the violence.

Bush insisted he would not abandon his goal of building a self-sustaining democratic government in Iraq.

In a separate interview with the BBC, Browne denied Britain had underestimated the task confronting its forces in Afghanistan, where they have met heavy resistance from Taliban guerrillas in the southern province of Helmand.

Browne said he would visit British troops in southern Afghanistan after holding talks in Kabul with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

REUTERS DKA BS1852