Bush 'brainwashed' Blair on Iraq pullout - Iraq VP

NEW YORK, Dec 20 (Reuters) British Prime Minister Tony Blair was in favor of announcing a timetable to pull troops out of Iraq, but was ''brainwashed'' out of it by President George W Bush, Iraq's vice president said yesterday.

Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi told New York's Council on Foreign Relations that when he spoke with Blair about three months ago, the British leader was supportive of his appeal for the United States and Britain to say when they would withdraw.

''I had just convinced him,'' Hashemi said. ''He promised he was going to discuss the subject with President Bush, but at the end of the day, it's quite unfortunate, that your president (made) some sort of brainwashing of Mr Blair.'' But Hashemi also said any withdrawal of troops should be conditional on US training of Iraq's security forces.

Blair, who visited Baghdad on Sunday, yesterday defended his nation's close US alliance in response to an influential British think tank's report that found the relationship has damaged Britain's credibility in the West Asia.

Hashemi, in comments to Reuters after his Council on Foreign Relations address, said that Blair had been ''open-minded'' about announcing a troop pullout.

''He promised me to take this message to Mr Bush, in fact, and he said 'I'm going to support that','' he said.

Hashemi said announcing a timetable for the withdrawal of American, British and other troops would help bring together warring Sunni and Shi'ite factions.

''The problem is the timetable withdrawal. If you announce that tomorrow, the problem is going to be mitigated,'' he said.

''The American troops, the American administration should be committed with a timetable conditional withdrawal from Iraq.

This is very important.'' But Hashemi added that the United States had made a commitment to Iraq, any therefore withdrawal of troops should be conditional on the training of Iraq's own security forces.

He blamed the sectarian tensions in his country on ''foreign interference.'' The Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan panel of former senior US officials, recommended this month that Bush withdraw most US forces from combat in Iraq by early 2008 and focus instead on training Iraqi forces.

The report has increased pressure on Bush to find a way out of a war that started with the US-led invasion in March, 2003, and has killed more than 2,900 US troops and tens of thousands of Iraqis.

REUTERS PKS RN0427