Iraq troop levels set to come down

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Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, the Chief of the Defence Staff, said that the numbers should come down to a "more sustainable operational tempo" over the course of 2009.

With more than 4,000 troops in Iraq and almost 8,000 in Afghanistan, Air Chief Marshal Stirrup again emphasised that the forces were not structured to maintain two operations on such a scale for an extended period.

He said that his priority now was to get them down to a more manageable level.

"I would expect us to see further substantial progress towards a more sustainable tempo in the course of the next year," he told BBC1's The Andrew Marr Show.

Air Chief Marshal Stirrup acknowledged that the numbers in Iraq had not come down as quickly as had been hoped. Gordon Brown had previously announced that they would be cut to 2,500 this year.

"It is a delay that is caused by a number of factors, the principle one of which is that we trained the 10th Division of the Iraqi Army in Basra, but then the Iraqis decided to move the 10th Division out of Basra and form a new division, the 14th Division, and we are now busy training and mentoring that one," Air Chief Marshal Stirrup said.

He said that while the international community's involvement in Afghanistan would have to carry on for decades, Britain's military commitment would continue for "a few years".

"The international community, I think, if the enterprise is to be successful, will need to engaged for decades," he said. "What I am talking about is across the full spectrum of effect in terms of reconstruction, governance, finance and the economy and so on.

"In terms of the military, we will be there for a few years. But the key for us is to develop the Afghan indigenous forces - the Afghan National Army - to the stage where they can take on the lead for these responsibilities themselves."