British Defense Secretary Des Browne said on Monday that British troops in Iraq would be "significantly lower by thousands" at the end of next year.

Addressing at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, a leading think tank in UK, Browne said, "by the end of next year, I expect numbers of British forces in Iraq to be significantly lower by a matter of thousands."

In Rome, Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said earlier Monday that Italy will complete its troop withdrawal from Iraq by Dec. 2 after the last soldiers turn over their base in southern Iraq to Iraqi forces.

Browne, whose country is a close ally of the United States in operations in Iraq, said "the planning for this (troop reduction in Iraq) has been going on for some months, and I have been pressing our planners to look at all the options, to make sure we do not ask a single soldier to remain in Iraq longer than is necessary."

"In the end of course, it must depend on conditions on the ground, including the level of threat and the capacity of Iraqis to deal with it, and the final decision will be down to our commanders," he said.

During the speech, Browne expressed hope that local Iraqi troops would take control of Basra in the south of the country in the spring, and he also restated Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett's statement that British-controlled Maysan province could transfer to Iraqi control in January, followed by Basra shortly afterward.

But he stressed that a handover of troops did not mean a withdrawal because the Iraqis would still need back-up.

"We need to be clear that handover does not mean withdrawal," the secretary said, adding "even when all of the provinces are handed over we will still be providing a force to mentor and back up the Iraqi army and police, and to protect Coalition supply routes."

Currently, Britain has some 7,000 troops in southern Iraq, most in the Basra area and about 800 in Maysan province. Since 2003, there are 126 British soldiers killed in Iraq.

Editor: Donald