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US Defense Secretary Robert Gates held talks with British leaders that were expected to take up their plans to reduce British forces in Iraq and discuss whether more troops were needed in Afghanistan.
The new US defence chief met with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and then held further talks with British Defence Secretary Des Browne at the start of a trip that will take him to Afghanistan.
Gates and Browne reaffirmed the importance of the US-British security relationship during a break in the talks but said little of substance about their discussions.
“We had a good conversation about Iraq, and I look forward to talking further about Afghanistan today,” Gates said, calling Britain “our most important international partner in both Iraq and Afghanistan.”
He conveyed his sympathies to the families of two British soldiers killed over the weekend, one in southern Iraq and the other by small arms fire in Afghanistan.
Gates told reporters on his flight to London that a top priority “is to make sure we preserve the gains we've achieved in Afghanistan and to talk about the way forward in Iraq.”
Blair last week said a US plan to send more than 20,000 additional US troops to Iraq “made sense,” but other members of his government have said that does not also imply a change in direction for Britain.
Browne has said Britain plans to reduce its 7,000 troops in Iraq in the coming months.
A senior US defence official said Britain may be considering sending more troops to Afghanistan, however.
The United States believe the Taliban will try to build on their offensive of last year, the biggest and bloodiest since their ouster in late 2001.
“We have information they are planning a spring offensive. We want to make sure we are prepared to take that on… and perhaps deal them a further setback,” said the official.
Gates also wants to find out from commanders on the ground in Afghanistan “whether they have the resources they need,” he said.
The United States has about 22,000 troops in Afghanistan, about half of them with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force which is taking over responsibility for security throughout the country.
There are more than 33,000 ISAF soldiers in Afghanistan, about a third of them in the south, which is the heartland of the Islamist Taliban movement and sees most insurgency-linked violence.
A former CIA director, Gates was last involved in Afghanistan as the spy agency's number two when it armed and funded an Islamic insurgency that drove Soviet forces from the country in the 1980s.
Gates planned to explain aspects of President George W. Bush's new Iraq strategy, including its heightened emphasis on Iran and Syria as well as a surge in US troops, the official said.
The official indicated that Gates would not be asking British troops to play a role in the new security plan, which is centered on Baghdad. US commanders felt they had all the coalition troops they needed, the official said.
But Gates wants to know more about Britain's assessment of the situation in the south and their rationale for reducing their forces, the official said.
The official said Gates planned to travel to southern Iraq to get the views of commanders there.
Although relatively quiet, the region is a particular US concern because of its long, open border with Iran and Tehran's influence with Shiite groups that are competing for power in the south.
The United States has accused Iran's Islamic regime of smuggling arms, advanced explosive devices and fighters to Iraq to attack US forces and destabilize.
Last week, US forces arrested five Iranians it said were involved in activities directed against US forces in a controversial raid in the northern Kurdish city of Arbil.
Gates testified for two days in defense of Bush's new buildup in Iraq, but acknowledged that success would hinge on the Iraqi government delivering on a series of military and political commitments made by Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki.
Maliki had wanted the crackdown in Baghdad to be carried out by Iraqi forces, but “grudgingly” accepted the need for US troops, Gates told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee last week.
