Blair leaves Downing Street

London: British Prime Minister Tony Blair left his Downing Street official residence for the last time on Wednesday, heading for Buckingham Palace to tender his resignation
after a decade in office.

Earlier, answering a final round of lawmakers' questions in parliament on Wednesday, Blair said Britain will withdraw more troops from Iraq within weeks, but he refused to set a final timetable for the exit of his armed forces.

"When, in the next few weeks we are able to complete a further phased withdrawal, they will come down even further," Blair said. "But it must be dependent on the
security and circumstances."

One of incoming leader Gordon Brown's first acts as British chief is likely to be sanctioning the cut _ a move which will help woo voters disenchanted by the unpopular
war.

"In the next few days, we'll be down to 5,000," Brown told Britain's Daily Mirror newspaper in an interview published Wednesday.

Britain's defense ministry said no plan for a cut of 500 troops had yet been agreed, but acknowledged it was likely in coming weeks, when a base at Basra Palace, in the
southern Iraqi city of Basra, is handed over to local forces.