British soldiers "certainly stretched" - army chief

LONDON, Aug 19 (Reuters) Britain's army has been stretched by missions in Iraq and Afghanistan and is not in a position to deploy any more soldiers, army chief Richard Dannatt said in an interview broadcast today.

Dannatt's comments come at a time of growing calls at home for Britain to withdraw its 5,500 troops from southern Iraq and as a force of more than 7,000 in Afghanistan battles Taliban militants in the south of the country.

''The army is certainly stretched. And when I say that we can't deploy any more battle groups at the present moment that's because were trying to get a reasonable balance of life for our people between time deployed, time on training and time in barracks,'' Dannatt told BBC television.

''Currently the time in barracks isn't as much as I would like.

We can be busy, we can be stretched, we can run hot -- provided we are looking after individuals and, critically, our soldiers feel valued and supported and thanked for what they are doing,'' he said during a visit to Afghanistan.

Britain is expected to pull out of its base in central Basra in southern Iraq soon and hand over responsibility for security to Iraqi forces, leaving about 5,000 British troops at a sprawling base at the nearby airport.

Forty-one British troops have died in Iraq this year, on track to exceed the 53 killed in 2003 when Britain joined US forces in an invasion to topple Sadaam Hussein.

Talk is rife that Britain's new prime minister, Gordon Brown, could announce a withdrawal of troops from Iraq as soon as October although some analysts say this could harm London's relations with Washington.

Britain's Independent newspaper today said army generals have told Brown they have done all they can in southern Iraq and the force should withdraw without delay.

The paper cited two generals as saying Britain should close its downtown Basra base by the end of August. It said the army was drawing up plans to pull the bulk of the remaining troops out of Iraq in the next few months.

Britain's Ministry of Defence responded by saying attempts by militia in Basra to drive out British troops were failing.

''British forces are doing an excellent job in Iraq and as the Chief of the Defence Staff recently said we have had success. The violence in Basra is much lower and of a different nature to Baghdad,'' a ministry spokeswoman said.

''Although the militias are trying claim credit for 'driving us out' they are failing. We are transferring responsibility to the Iraqi Security Forces in line with conditions on the ground,'' she said.

The Ministry of Defence also rejected a report in another British newspaper today saying it was planning to boost its force in Afghanistan to 9,000 troops during 2008.

''There's absolutely no truth in it,'' the spokeswoman said.

''There are no plans to send additional troops to Afghanistan at the moment, or even by the end of 2008.'' REUTERS RKM KN1718