Blair on last visit to Iraq as shells hit Green Zone

Baghdad - British Prime Minister Tony Blair arrived in Iraq on Saturday, Britain's embassy in Baghdad said, confirming what was likely to be his last visit to the war-torn country before he leaves office.

The visit was not announced in advance for security reasons, and the embassy would not release details of his programme. Blair has announced that he will step down as British leader on June 27 after 10 years in office.

"He's in Baghdad against a backdrop of the continuing major security operation but also significant developments in Iraqi politics," Blair's spokesman told reporters, according to the Downing Street press office.

The spokesman said Blair was keen to see Iraq's beleaguered government build on recent moves to promote ties with Sunni tribal leaders once suspicious of the Shiite-led ruling coalition.

"The next few months are crucial in building on that momentum," he said. "What the prime minister will want to highlight in this visit is the fundamental link between politics and security."

An official in Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's office confirmed that the two leaders would meet but could not say when. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's office also confirmed that it was expecting a meeting with Blair.

Just before the visit was announced, two mortar shells crashed into Baghdad's fortified Green Zone, which houses the British and US embassies and Maliki's office.

It was not immediately clear if there were casualties nor if the attack -- part of a mounting series of daily assaults on the walled district -- was timed to coincide with Blair's arrival.

In March 2003, Blair ordered British forces to take part in the US-led invasion of Iraq and, four years on, 7,100 soldiers are still deployed in and around the southern city of Basra battling insurgents and illegal militias.

Last month 12 British troops were killed in Iraq, in the bloodiest single month for their force since the invasion itself, and their two remaining bases in the country come under almost daily mortar and rocket fire.

Domestic public support for the war has plummeted, and Blair had previously announced that British forces would begin to withdraw from Iraq in August.

Meanwhile, Basra itself is in the grip of a vicious turf war between rival Shiite factions bent on controlling Iraq's massive oil exports.

Blair stands by his decision to take part in the operation to topple the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, despite the fact that his alleged arsenal of chemical and biological weapons was never found.

But the British leader -- who last visited Iraq in December and is now on a sort of valedictory world tour -- admits that the four years since the invasion proved more dangerous than expected.

"There's no doubt at all it's immensely challenging, immensely difficult, but also there is a huge amount that is being done," he said this week at his final joint news conference with US President George W. Bush.

Basra's citizens, who were persecuted under Saddam's rule, welcomed his fall and initially relations with the British troops went well.

But in the chaos that has descended on the country since the invasion, American and British troops have increasingly found themselves blamed for the collapse in public services and the rise of sectarian and political militias.

Control of Basra, Iraq's main oil port, is disputed by rival Shiite clans and political groups, many of them armed and trained by nearby Iran.

In March, Iranian naval forces captured 15 British sailors and marines in the waters of the Gulf and held them for two tense weeks, before freeing them at a humiliating televised ceremony.

The incident was only the latest embarrassing setback for the British military, which has lost 114 soldiers in action since the invasion.

Most British forces are now concentrated on Basra air station, a sprawling base outside the city, after two fortified compounds inside the built-up area were handed over to the fledgling 10th division of the Iraqi Army.

Agence France Presse