Baghdad: In a surprise pre-Christmas visit to Iraq on Thursday British Prime Minister Tony Blair paid tributes to the troops serving in the Gulf country.
Blair was on his fourth trip to Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion that led to the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime.
"I just want you to know how grateful we are and how grateful everyone is back home for the work you're doing here," Blair said while addressing the troops from atop a tank carrier.
Though the Prime Minister was upbeat about troop withdrawal in 2006 but he did not give any time frame.
He said that the troops were helping build a democracy and the beginning of any pullout would depend on the ability of Iraqi armed forces and police to bring peace in the country.
Blair, who spent half an hour with several small groups of soldiers, said he was pleased to hear that they have a high regard for Iraqi forces.
He also held round-table talks with General George Casey, the top US military commander in Iraq, and US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad as well as senior British diplomatic and military figures, his spokesman said.
Blair was followed by US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld who arrived at Baghdad airport on a cargo plane from Afghanistan.
Rumsfeld, while addressing the troops at Bagram air base in Afganistan, had warned that a rapid withdrawal of US forces from Iraq or Afghanistan would spawn more terrorism in the region.
"The war on terror is a long war. It is a war against the violent extremists who are determined to kill innocent men, women and children," Rumsfeld said.
"And it's because if we were to withdraw from Afghanistan precipitously, or from Iraq, the terrorists would attack us first somewhere else in this region and then they would attack us at home," he added.
Rumsfeld is under pressure at home from the Congress and waning public support of the US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
This has forced him to order the number of troops in Afghanistan be reduced by spring 2006.
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