Britain plans to withdraw troops from Iraq

London: Britain plans to substantially scale back its troop numbers in Iraq during 2009, the head of the country's armed forces said on Sunday.

Air Chief Marshal Jock Stirrup said the UK will withdraw soldiers to help ease major strains on Britain's military, which has been stretched by deployments in both Afghanistan and southern Iraq.

Britain had planned to cut its number of troops in Iraq from 4,000 to 2,500 earlier this year, but postponed the withdrawal in March amid a spike in militia violence.

The UK troops in Iraq are based at an airport camp on the fringe of the oil-rich southern city of Basra and no longer have an active combat role. Soldiers are involved mainly in training Iraqi soldiers, police and border guards.

Stirrup said the spike in violence and complications in training Iraqi soldiers had caused delays to earlier planned withdrawals, but said soldiers will be pulled out of Iraq next year.