Iraq Commission calls for early troop withdrawal

4.00.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 16th Jul 2007

Liberal Democrats at the London rally against war in Iraq

UK troops should withdraw from Iraq as soon as they have trained local forces - regardless of the security situation, a group of senior politicians has said. The US-led coalition has "no easy options left, only painful ones", a report by the Iraq Commission stated. "We are, in a sense, a target for the violence, and therefore we need to hand this process over to the Iraqis," joint Commission chairman Lord Ashdown told BBC One's Sunday AM programme. The Commission recommends a "diplomatic offensive" to stabilise Iraq's borders. Speaking on Saturday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki said that the Iraqi army and police are capable of keeping security in the country when American troops leave "any time they want". On Friday the US House of Representatives voted in favour of pulling most combat troops out of Iraq by April next year.

Sir Ming Campbell said "The tectonic plates are shifting under President Bush and the end game on Iraq is already well underway in the United States. Coalition troops must withdraw from Iraq. Any further training of Iraqi military and security forces must be done through the United Nations to internationalise support for Iraq so that coalition forces can withdraw."