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Agence France-PresseReported talks on British Iraq pulloutJuly 29, 2007 10:19am
BRITISH Prime Minister Gordon Brown's chief foreign policy adviser has sounded out the White House on a possible early withdrawal of troops from Iraq, a newspaper reported today.
The Sunday Times quoted an unnamed source as saying that Simon McDonald gave the impression that he was “doing the groundwork” for Brown, who meets US President George W. Bush for the first time as prime minister later today.
Mr McDonald, a senior diplomat who ran the Iraq desk at the Foreign Office in London, is said to have asked a “select group” of US foreign policy specialists earlier this month about the possible effects of a British pull-out.
In an article from London and Washington, the newspaper quoted one of those consulted as saying: “The general feeling was that he was doing the groundwork for a Brown conversation. “The view is Britain feels it can't fight two wars, and Afghanistan is more worth fighting for,” the sourced said. Britain has 7000 soldiers in Afghanistan, serving as part of a NATO security and reconstruction force there.
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