---

Iraq

I thank my hon. Friend for his comments about the police because we must be balanced and remember that it takes a lot of courage to put on a police uniform in Basra, Baghdad or anywhere in Iraq, yet thousands of people are doing just that. We are trying to give what help we can not only to train people in the police service, but to promote quality—human rights, objectivity and neutrality. I do not pretend that there is a magic wand that we can wave. However, we have about 100 specialist police officers there at present. We have trained some 14,000 Iraqi police and we hope that the number will be 25,000 by the end of next year. I do not underestimate for a moment the amount of time or the difficulties with training that are in front of us. However, to answer my hon. Friend’s implied question—and the specific question asked by the hon. Member for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk (Mr. Moore)—I do not envisage a change to the projected time scale in which we might think that conditions would come to fruition to enable us to hand over. I see no reason to change the view that I held earlier in the year that we could start such a process during the course of next year.