British troops could leave Iraq by the end of next year, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said on Sunday. “We don’t want British forces forever in Iraq. Within one year – I think at the end of 2006 – Iraqi troops will be ready to replace British forces in the South,” Talabani told ITV’s Jonathan Dimbleby program.

Talabani also said, however, that an immediate withdrawal of foreign forces would be a “catastrophe” for Iraq and would lead to civil war. Iraqis are working on training their own soldiers and police to take full control of security of their country and fight a Sunni Arab insurgency that has killed thousands of people since 2003’s US-led invasion.

Britain, which has about 8,000 soldiers in Iraq, has said it will start to pull out its troops as soon as local forces think they can maintain security but London has so far declined to set a timetable. British forces are stationed mainly in southern Iraq which had been more stable than some other regions but violence has also risen there in the last few months. Britain’s top army general Sir Mike Jackson agreed it was possible that soldiers could leave within the next year or so, but warned against giving a firm date for a pullout.

“What we are trying to achieve is a set of conditions at which point we have the confidence, and more importantly the Iraqi government and people have the confidence, they can fully stand on their own feet,” Jackson said in a BBC TV interview. “When those conditions come together then the time will be right (to withdraw),” he said. Iraqis vote on December 15 to elect a national parliament to a four-year term. Talabani had also told reporters in Rome on Saturday it might be possible to agree on the withdrawal of foreign troops by the end of 2006.