The United States has said that Prime Minister Tony Blair's announcement that Britain would begin pulling its troops out of Iraq was not a negative sign rather one that indicated progress on the ground.
White House spokesman Tony Snow said he did not see this development as a negative sign rather one that indicated progress in Basra and Britain going about with enhanced capabilities on the ground and with the Iraqi army units.
"It indicates that there's been some progress in Basra. The fact that there has been progress in a couple of areas -- one is training up Iraqis to take over some of the responsibilities that the Brits and the Danes have been handling within Basra has made it possible for Britain to remove some of the forces," he said.
Snow said Blair's announcement has not changed the combat capability of British forces within the area, and instead they would have enhanced abilities to continue doing the work of embedding and training and working with the Iraqi army.
Snow did not agree that it was time for the US also to pull its troops out of Iraq.
"No, this is not a time line. And the prime minister made it clear it is not a time line. As a matter of fact, what you had is progress first and then the removal. This was not in response to any calendar that had been set by the Parliament or by the prime minister. In fact, it had been the result of a judgment," he said.
