Most of Britain's 4,100-strong contingent in Iraq will be withdrawn during the next nine months, leaving only a few hundred soldiers there, it was reported today.
The Daily Telegraph in London cited unnamed "senior defence sources" as saying the majority of British troops would leave the country by the end of the northern spring 2009.
In July, Prime Minister Gordon Brown promised a major troop withdrawal in the early months of 2009, but Britain's military said yesterday that it was premature to discuss specific figures.
"Although it is hoped that the UK military presence in Iraq will decrease significantly in the future, it is still too early to discuss the size and shape of a reduced UK forces' footprint," the military said in a statement.
Britain's forces are mostly based near the southern Iraqi city of Basra.
The Guardian newspaper today quoted Major General White-Spunner, who just returned from a six-month tour in southern Iraq, as saying that the city's port was booming, that property prices were rising, and that locals were convinced that militias would not return.