Brown to face Iraq inquiry calls

Gordon Brown paid tribute to servicemen and women who have died

Gordon Brown is set to face fresh calls for a public inquiry into the Iraq war as he updates MPs on plans to withdraw British troops by the end of next July.

In a statement to Parliament, Mr Brown is expected to give more details of the timetable for withdrawal he announced during his visit to Iraq on Wednesday.

Opposition parties have urged Mr Brown to set up a "full-scale" inquiry into the origins and conduct of the war.

He has said there will be no inquiry while UK troops are still in Iraq.

During a meeting with Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki, Mr Brown confirmed that military operations will end by 31 May and the UK's remaining 4,100 service personnel will leave within two months.

Several hundred troops are expected to remain in a training capacity, some working with the Iraqi navy.

Mr Brown has said the country should be "proud" of the role that British troops have played in Iraq and that they will leave the country "a better place".

Can't be delayed

The withdrawal of UK troops is expected to start in the spring although Mr Brown has suggested that the biggest withdrawals will take place in the summer.

Before leaving Iraq on Wednesday, Mr Brown laid a wreath in memory of the 178 British servicemen and women who have been killed there since 2003.

Confirmation that the UK's six-year presence in Iraq is to end has intensified calls for an independent inquiry into the background to the invasion, how it was conducted and how military operations have been carried out since then.

Shadow foreign secretary William Hague has said an inquiry "can no longer be delayed", arguing that it will yield valuable lessons for the UK's continuing deployment in Afghanistan.

The UK is expected to come under pressure to send more troops to Afghanistan next year as fighting between the existing Nato force there and the Taleban intensifies.

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, whose party opposed the Iraqi war, has said an inquiry is needed to ensure the deaths of British troops and Iraqi citizens are not "simply swept under the carpet".

Commons leader Harriet Harman said on Wednesday that an inquiry had not been "delayed".

She insisted ministers had consistently said that it could not happen while troops were still on active service.

On Thursday it emerged that 23 officials from Iraq's interior and defence ministries have been arrested on suspicion of being members of a banned Baathist party.