British Prime Minister Tony Blair, on a surprise visit to Baghdad on Monday, pledged support for Iraq's new unity government in its efforts to stop the bloody slide towards civil war.
His Iraqi counterpart Nuri al-Maliki, whose government took office only on Saturday after months of difficult negotiations, voiced hope that local forces would be able to take over control of security from US-led forces across much of the country by the end of the year.
Blair said Britain, the main ally in the US-led invasion of March 2003, would work with the new government "to make the hopes and expectations of the Iraqi people for the future a reality" and voiced support for a call for an international conference on Iraqi debt and reconstruction.
"Iraqi people are about to take charge of their own destiny and write the next chapter of Iraq history themselves," said Blair, on his fifth visit to Iraq since the invasion and the toppling of Saddam Hussein in Apri l2003. "There is now no excuse for people to carry on with terrorism and bloodshed."
He said peace in Iraq, which is battling a largely Sunni-led insurgency and sectarian violence, would pave the way for the withdrawal of foreign forces, which include about 8,000 British troops.
"It's the violence that keeps us here. It's the peace that will let us go," Blair added. "We want to move as fast as we can, but it has to be done in a way to preserve the security of the Iraqi people."
The US administration is also under increasing pressure from the American public to withdraw the some 130,000 US troops deployed in Iraq.
Maliki, who vowed on Sunday to use "massive force" to stop the violence, insisted that the country was "not in a civil war," but reiterated his intention to disarm militias blamed for a recent surge in sectarian violence.
Blair's visit coincided with the first meeting of the Iraqi parliament since the formation of the first permanent government of the post-Saddam Hussein era, which includes Shia, Sunni and Kurdish ministers.
But the key defence and interior ministries have yet to be filled.
A senior British official travelling with Blair said the withdrawal of US-led forces should be accomplished within four years, with a transfer to civilian control in several provinces during the summer.
"There is an agreement for the transfer of security under a timetable which starts in June when Iraqi forces will take control of the provinces of Samawa and Amara," Maliki said at the press conference.