UK's Brown rejects immediate pullout from Iraq

London, May 14: Britain's leader-in-waiting Gordon Brown rejected an immediate pullout of the country's troops from Iraq as he defended himself against two left-wingers who want to challenge him for the leadership.

Brown clashed on foreign and domestic policy with left-wing lawmakers Michael Meacher and John McDonnell during a lively 80-minute debate before an audience in London yesterday.

Prime Minister Tony Blair has said he will resign on June 27 after a decade in power, sparking a potential leadership battle in the ruling Labour Party. Only finance minister Brown is sure to have enough backing to be a candidate to succeed Blair.

Meacher, 67, and McDonnell, 55, the only other politicians so far to put their names forward, will decide on Monday which has the best chance of winning the support of 45 lawmakers required to get on the ballot. The other will drop out.

Brown, 56, stuck closely to the reformist ''New Labour'' policies that brought Blair three election victories, portraying his rivals as seeking to return to old Labour tax-and-spend policies that proved its downfall in the 1980s.

British media has been buzzing with talk that Brown may speed up withdrawal of British troops from Iraq, the conflict that many Britons regard as the biggest stain on Blair's legacy.

But Brown defended the presence of British troops in Iraq and ruled out any immediate withdrawal.

Wrong Time

British troop numbers in Iraq had fallen substantially but Britain had obligations to the Iraqi people, he said.

''Whatever the divisions have been it would be the wrong time now to just say: 'Send troops home now','' he said.

''We're moving to a new stage in Iraq,'' he said, because Iraq had taken over security in three of the four provinces that Britain took charge of after the 2003 US-led invasion.

Meacher said British forces should leave Iraq in the next few months, saying it was ''the occupation forces which have produced the suicide bombings'' there.

Echoing Blair, Brown also said he supported international intervention to stop the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region, calling this ''one of the urgent causes of the next few months.'' ''The question now is whether we move from the sanctions and potentially to financial sanctions and then to a no-fly zone and how, most of all, we get an African Union and UN force in there almost immediately so we can protect the civilian population,'' he said.

McDonnell and Meacher called for a debate on the future direction of the Labour Party. They complained about growing inequality in Britain and a lack of affordable housing.

''We've lost touch with our voters and we need a genuine renewal,'' Meacher said.

Brown said Labour had made progress over the last 10 years but had a lot more to do, pledging to work on reducing poverty among children and pensioners.

But he rejected a return to high-spending policies that he said had undermined past Labour governments.

Earlier yesterday, Brown announced plans to build five environmentally friendly and affordable ''eco-towns.''

Reuters>