LONDON, Dec. 22 (UPI) -- Prime Minister Tony Blair said Thursday that British troops could begin to withdraw from Iraq in the first half of 2006 "if everything goes to plan."
Speaking during a surprise visit to British troops in the country, he said the situation had much improved in the past year, and that troops would be brought home as soon as Iraqi forces were capable of taking over responsibility for security.
Asked if six months might be a viable timescale for withdrawal to begin, Blair replied: "If everything goes to plan. It is our strategy, we want to draw down our own forces.
"This is a completely different situation from the situation a year ago," he told reporters at Shaiba logistics base near Basra, home to half the 8,500 strong British contingent in Iraq.
But the prime minister said he would not set an "arbitrary timetable" for withdrawal, adding "you assess when the job's going to be done."
Addressing troops at the base, he said Britain was grateful for the work they were doing to bring stability and democracy to the country.
"I just want you to know how grateful we are for the work you are doing here," Blair said. "However tough it is, I hope you have some sense of how important it is."
Some 10 million Iraqis had voted in the nationwide elections held last week, he told the troops.
Blair said: "The important thing is to try and help this country become the democracy its people want it to be."
The coalition had to provide the security to enable Iraqi forces to build up their strength "and then of course we can eventually draw down our own capability."
"The importance of this is probably greater today than it has ever been," he said.
"Because, if Iraq does stabilize and become a democracy, then the region is more safe, our own country is more safe, because international terrorism will have been dealt a huge blow.
"If we manage to defeat the terrorism here, we will have dealt it a blow worldwide. I know how dangerous it is sometimes, because we have lost good colleagues here -- and it is tough, I know, sometimes."
But, Blair said, whatever the dangers "you can look back at this time and you can be very, very proud of what you have done."
The prime minister met top U.S. and British defense officials during his visit, including coalition chief Gen. George Casey, who told him that in some areas of the country, Iraqi forces would be heading 75 percent of security operations by next summer.
The trip comes amid mounting speculation over when coalition troops could, or should, begin to withdraw.
The former British ambassador to Baghdad, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, said he expected numbers to begin reducing by the end of 2006, but that a total withdrawal of coalition troops was "some way away."
"If Iraq goes well you can draw down to half of that (the total coalition troop numbers) by the end of 2006," he told BBC Radio Thursday.
"If things don't go well, the coalition should still be in six figures."
But Greenstock earlier warned the insurgency would not abate for another five years.
"I think (the insurgency) has got at least five years of life, because there are men and there are materials," he told Sky News Wednesday night.
A new threat to political progress in the country also emerged Thursday as Sunni Arab and secular parties warned they would boycott the new Iraqi parliament.
The two Sunni Arab blocs and the Iraqi National List of former Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi claimed last week's elections were marred by fraud.
"We totally reject the results of these rigged elections and call for the cancellation of the early results," a joint statement issued by the parties in Baghdad said.
"We hold the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq responsible for all the violations which took place during the elections and demand that it be dissolved and a suitable alternative to be found," it added.
"If this is not achieved, then we will have no choice but to refuse the results and boycott the new parliament."
The final results of the election are not expected to be announced until the beginning of January, though partial results released this week suggested the Shia-led United Iraqi Alliance was set to maintain its dominance in the new Council of Representatives. Allawi's party has retained barely half of the 40 seats it won at the January elections.
If a boycott does go ahead, the ensuing political turmoil could throw the coalition's withdrawal plans into disarray.
