BAGHDAD, May 23 (UPI) -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair says some of Britain's 7,200 troops in Iraq could start coming home within weeks, and all will be home within four years.
Blair paid a surprise visit to Baghdad on Monday to meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and congratulate him on forming a new unity government.
"We want to move as fast as we can" in reducing troop numbers, but not at the risk of stability in Iraq, Blair said, The Times of London reported. "It's the violence that keeps us here. It's the peace that will let us go."
Maliki said two of the four British-run provinces in the south could be handed over to Iraqi forces next month, freeing up 1,500 British troops. He also said by the end of the year only Baghdad and the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Anbar in the west might remain under U.S. control.
Blair will discuss the troop situation with U.S. President George Bush at a White House meeting later this week, the newspaper said.
