UK out of Iraq in 16 months

With expectations that the Iraqi security forces will be ready, Tony Blair set a 16-month limit for keeping British troops in Iraq yesterday as he admitted for the first time that they would be a 'provocation' if they stayed too long.

The state of the Iraqi state is now as uncertain as it has ever been. A "helluva mess" is how the former US Secretary of State James Baker is said to have described the state of Iraq - and the search is on for the least-worst option for US policy makers.