Britain plans to hand over the control of Basra to the Iraqi army as early as next month despite a simmering row with its close ally US over the decision to pull out most of its troops from the war-ravaged country.

The Iraqi army is on course to take control of Basra province by the autumn with October seen as the earliest point at which it would be ready, government officials were quoted as saying by The Sunday Times.

‘Flawed policy’
It could allow Prime Minister Gordon Brown to announce the handover in his widely anticipated statement on Iraq in the Lower House when MPs return from the summer recess. The revelation came as Brown’s attempts to play down the simmering row, with the US by some harsh criticism of Washington’s Iraq policy by former Generals.
Retired Maj Gen Tim Cross — the most senior British officer involved in postwar planning — said Washington’s policy had been “fatally flawed”, according to an interview in the Sunday Mirror.

The handover of Basra would enable most of the 5,500 British soldiers to leave Iraq, although negotiations are under way to base some troops in Kuwait.

According to defence sources in Washington, American commanders in Baghdad have accepted that British troops are on their way out of Iraq, prompting further criticism this weekend from US military commentators.
The growing irritation in Washington will only be increased by renewed claims that the British have done a deal with the Shi’ite militias.