Blair: Iraq veto over troops
 |  Blair addresses reporters at Tuesday's news conference |
|  VIDEO |
 CNN's John King breaks down President Bush's Iraq policy speech.
 The president lays out a plan for the transition of power in Iraq.
 Bush says freedom in Iraq will bring hope to the Middle East.
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LONDON, England (CNN) -- The interim Iraqi government due to run the country from July will have a veto over the military operations of multinational troops, British Prime Minister Tony Blair says.
"If there's a political decision as to whether you go into a place like Fallujah in a particular way, that has to be done with the consent of the Iraqi government," Blair told his regular monthly news conference.
"The final political control remains with the Iraqi government," he said. "That's what the transfer of sovereignty means."
He added that overseas troops would remain in Iraq "until the job is done" and an Iraqi security service is "up and running."
"Our position and the Iraqi position is the same," he said.
"Our troops should only remain as long as it is necessary for them to remain to provide the security that the Iraqis need in order to make sure the political transition to democracy works."
A new U.N. resolution tabled by the UK and U.S. Monday authorized the continued presence of a multinational force if the interim sovereign Iraqi government wanted one.
Earlier, Iraq's defense minister told a news conference in London that a multinational force may be kept in Iraq for months rather than years.
Ali Allawi said he expected an indigenous Iraqi security force in place by the end of the year and certainly before the planned elections of next January.
Allawi was speaking following a meeting with Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon.
Asked how long he thought a multinational force would be in place in Iraq, Allawi said: "The timing of a presence of a multinational force, it is a question of months rather than years.
"It would be very unusual we would not be able to install security in the next year," Allawi said in London during a news conference with his British counterpart, Geoff Hoon.
"Beyond that period I think the level of adequate security is going to be dependent on the rate at which we develop our own capabilities."
"In terms of a time line for the presence of multi-national forces to help us in establishing security and stability," he said, "I think it will be a question of months rather than years."
Allawi's words eerily echoed those of Vice President Dick Cheney when he said just days before U.S. forces invaded Iraq that any war with Saddam Hussein would likely last "weeks rather than months."
Cheney, speaking on March 16, 2003, told CBS' Face the Nation, he based his assessment on his time as Defense Secretary (1988-1993), but added that "there's always the possibility of complications that you can't anticipate."
Speaking later Tuesday on CNN's American Morning, Democratic Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware questioned the idea that Iraqi troops could be ready to assume full security duties in a year -- and President Bush's pledge Monday night to have a 35,000-man Iraqi army -- 260,000 Iraqi security forces in all -- trained in a year.
"All his experts have said to him as well as to me that will take three years for that," said Biden, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "The 260,000 people he talked about. None of them are worth a tinker's darn. We need real live troops."
 Allawi: In London for talks | |
Biden said the president left out the key question -- "How is he going to speed it up?"
Biden, like many Democrats and a growing number of Republicans, said more coalition troops are needed now. Bush said about 140,000 U.S. troops would remain in Iraq for now.
In London, Hoon said the number of British troops in Iraq is "under constant review."
"We're in constant contact with our officer commanding on the ground," he said.
"Obviously in the light of his requests, his judgment of the security situation we make appropriate decisions. We have not taken any decisions at this stage to send extra troops to Iraq."
Hoon said he and Allawi were united in their determination that the current insurgency in Iraq would not stop the push to install an Iraqi government on June 30 and hold direct elections early next year.
"We've always recognized that as we make progress, those who are trying to prevent Iraqis from taking responsibility will grow more vicious and more desperate," Hoon said.
