Britain to keep troops in Iraq: Minister

Britain will keep its troops in Iraq as long as they are required and could send more soldiers there if necessary, British Defence Secretary John Reid said on Sunday.

"Our troops will be there until such times as the conditions are met - those conditions being the Iraqis themselves having such democratic control and such security forces that they can take the lead," Reid told ITV television.

Britain has some 9,000 troops in Iraq, mostly based in the south of the country near Basra. More British troops can be deployed in Iraq if they are needed, Reid said.

"We don't need them at the moment. If they are necessary, of course we would do that and when the Iraqis decide that they want to take over the transition and the lead then they will tell us," he said. "But there is no cutting and running. We are there until this job is done."

Britain is also due to play a lead role next year when North Atlantic Treaty Organisation takes over peacekeeping operations in the southern sector of Afghanistan.

Those plans and the continuing violence in Iraq have prompted the opposition conservative party to accuse the government of putting too many demands on the British military's resources. But Reid insisted that Britain's armed forces had sufficient funding.