Italy pull-out puts pressure on PM over Iraq

Tony Blair was under pressure today to announce a timetable for withdrawing British troops from Iraq after Italy said it would start a pullout this year.

Prime minister Silvio Berlusconi - a key George Bush ally - revealed he had spoken to Mr Blair about a "precise exit strategy" as he announced Italy's forces would start leaving in September.

In a signal Downing Street is in no mood to back off from defending the war, Cherie Blair was set to join MPs marking the anniversary of Saddam Hussein's 1988 chemical weapons attack at Halabja.

The premier's wife is expected to take the rare step of appearing in the Commons to commemorate the killing of 5,000 Kurds by Saddam's poison gas.

The new Iraqi parliament was meeting for the first time today to try to select the country's first elected government in decades.

Italy's decision to start withdrawing its 3,000 troops will leave Britain as the only European country with a serious presence.

Mr Berlusconi told an Italian TV interviewer last night he had been talking to Mr Blair about a co-ordinated pull-out. "I've spoken to Blair about this. We've got to construct a precise exist strategy. Public opinion of our countries expects it and we shall be talking about it soon," he said.

The announcement follows the huge public outcry at the death of Nicola Calipari, the intelligence officer killed by US troops in Baghdad after rescuing an Italian journalist.

British defence sources repeated government policy that troops will stay in Iraq "as long as is necessary and as long as the Iraqis want us".

Under a UN mandate for the multinational force in the country, troops have to leave by 31 December. But they can stay longer if the Iraqi government needs them because its own forces are not ready.

An anti-war demonstration to mark the start of the conflict two years ago will be staged in London this weekend.