Ashdown 'pessimistic' over Iraq

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Lord Ashdown called for British troops to be withdrawn once Iraqi forces are trained to replace them, regardless of the security situation.

The Government has said troops will come home as the security situation improves and the Iraqi military takes over, but in a pessimistic assessment Lord Ashdown said coalition forces can no longer suppress the violence.

He told BBC1's Sunday AM: "We committed the cardinal sin of these interventions, which is to have ridiculously overambitious aims; to re-create Washington in Baghdad, to recreate a fully-functioning western-style democracy in a Middle Eastern country."

Lord Ashdown continued: "Our withdrawal rate should be determined not by the security situation - which allows the militias, the insurgents, to determine our withdrawal - but by the state of training of the Iraqi forces."

He said Tony Blair had "failed to use the leverage" he had to influence George Bush's policy in Iraq.

Lord Ashdown co-chaired the Iraq Commission, which took evidence from a series of experts to examine the way the conflict has unfolded.

The commission's report states that the UK should "actively and urgently ... pursue changes of policy from our allies".

The report recommends maintaining Iraq as a single, federal nation with the co-operation of its neighbours and creating an "economic roadmap" to rebuild the country.

Lord Ashdown said: "There are no risk-free options. There are no good options left. What we have had to do is choose the least worst one."