Prime Minister Tony Blair arrived in Baghdad for a surprise visit to show his support for the newly formed Iraqi national unity government, officials said. Blair was in Iraq to ?meet the prime minister (Nuri al-Maliki) and members of the government,? a spokesman at Blair?s office in London said, adding there would be a press conference later.

Journalists traveling with Blair said he took a helicopter ride into Baghdad?s heavily-fortified Green Zone, where the US-led coalition and Iraqi prime minister?s office are based, after first flying to Kuwait from Britain.

Blair?s official spokesman said in Baghdad that Blair sought to shore up the 37-member cabinet which was finally approved by Iraqi MPs after more than five months of coalition talks.?Iraq now has a democratically-elected government which is there for a four-year term, is made up of all the different groupings within Iraq and it is very much dictating the agenda,? the spokesman said.

?We are here to show our support for that democratic government and to help it take charge of its own destiny,? he added.

A senior British official traveling with Blair said the withdrawal of the US-led multi-national force should be accomplished within four years, with a transfer to civilian control in several provinces during the summer. He stressed that was not a timetable for troop withdrawal, and did not augur the quick return home of large numbers of British troops.

Some 8,000 British troops remain in Iraq, in and around the main southern city of Basra.