The British-led coalition base in Basra will lower its flag and transfer to US control as American soldiers arrive to take up a new role that includes the training of Iraq's fledgling police force.

"It will be a significant day because it signals the completion of Britain's military tasks here," Major General Andy Salmon, the outgoing British commander of the base, told AFP ahead of the pull out.

"We have had some difficult times but we look ahead to the future with a huge amount of optimism for Iraq."

Britain, under then prime minister Tony Blair, was America's key ally when president George W. Bush ordered his forces to invade Iraq in March 2003.

British troop numbers in the campaign were the second largest, peaking at 46,000 in March and April six years ago during the US-led invasion, and 179 of its servicemen and women have died in the country.

A deal signed by Baghdad and London last year agreed the remaining 4,100 British soldiers would complete their mission -- primarily training the Iraqi army -- by June, before a complete withdrawal from the country in late July.

The British contribution to the war and subsequent reconstruction effort was recognised by both American and Iraqi officers ahead of Tuesday's handover.

"British forces have been our strongest ally throughout this campaign," US Army Major General Michael Oates, who will become the senior coalition officer in Basra when the British-led unit ceases to exist on Tuesday, told AFP.

"They have done an outstanding job and our task is to continue that work," Oates said.

The Iraqi army's senior officer in the province used a farewell feast at Basra's Shaat al Arab Hotel at the weekend to thank Britain for its support in the wake of Saddam's ouster.

"I would like to thank the British nation for the assistance they have provided to help rid us of dictatorship and live in freedom and democracy," said Major General Hawedi Mohammed.

"The Iraqi Army and the Iraqi public will remember the sacrifice by British forces for some time to come. Our thoughts and prayers are also with the families of the British soldiers who lost their lives in this country."

Basra, Iraq's third-largest city and a strategic oil hub, had been under British control since the invasion, but the province and its airport returned to Iraqi sovereignty three months ago.

As well as training the Iraqi army, Britain has also been key in the rebirth of the war-torn country's new navy.

A Royal Navy training team is based at the southern port of Umm Qasr and its role is expected to continue although a new agreement has yet to be reached between the two governments.

Relations between London and Baghdad should in theory revert to the same footing as those between other countries when British troops complete their withdrawal in the summer.

The British pull out comes as the US military also steps up preparations to leave Iraq.

Under a US-Iraqi security agreement signed in November last year, US troops are to withdraw from major towns and cities by June 30 and from the whole country by the end of 2011.

President Barack Obama has ordered an end to US combat operations in Iraq by August 31 next year, but says 50,000 troops will remain under a new mission to expire at the year-end deadline.

earlier related report
British troops pleased to leave Iraq
"Hopefully when the last British soldier leaves Iraq it will stay peaceful because no one really wants to come back," says Corporal Nathanael Wrigglesworth.

The 29-year-old from Southampton is about to complete his third tour here, and his unit, The Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment, will then leave the country as part of a British withdrawal that officially starts on Tuesday.

Britain's departure begins almost 50 years after its previous exit from Iraq, in May 1959, when the last soldiers left the Habbaniyah base near Fallujah, ending a presence that began in 1918.

Wrigglesworth has been in the army for 13 years and his colleagues gratefully admit their current tour has been almost free of incident, a testament to a hard-fought and improving security situation.

"When we first came here five years ago we didn't know when the enemy was going to hit us, but now it's a case of wondering if the blokes are going to have enough DVDs to watch on their computers," he joked at his base in Basra.

The soldiers of the PWRR's 1st Battalion, nicknamed the Armoured Tigers, now wander around camp in floppy, desert camouflage hats, as opposed to the kevlar helmets and body armour that was once essential.

Life is casual compared to when they first arrived in 2004, a tour that saw Private Johnson Beharry awarded the Victoria Cross, the military's highest decoration for valour, for twice saving his colleagues from ambushes near Al-Amara.

Two PWRR soldiers died on that deployment but there have been no fatalities since.

"We have only been out on the ground about four times on this tour," Wrigglesworth says.

"The Iraqis are now running their own operations and that is fine by me. It's time we left them to get on with it."

Private Simon Coray, 23, and from Wapping in east London, also believes the time is right time for British forces, who have lost 179 personnel in Iraq, to leave, although the war and army life has transformed him personally.

"I was a bit of a loser I suppose," says Coray who joined up in 2004, only a year after millions took to Britain's streets to protest against the looming US-led invasion that eventually saw Saddam Hussein ousted from power.

"I'd had six different jobs in about six months and my mother was threatening to kick me out, so I signed up. The way I see it Saddam had to be got rid of one way or the other, but I'm glad we're leaving now."

Soon after arriving on his first tour in 2006 Coray, then a gunner on a Warrior armoured fighting vehicle, came under fire during a patrol near Basra, an experience he will never forget.

"They hit the first vehicle with small arms fire and rocket propelled grenades in what was a very well planned ambush," he recalls.

"I remember the silhouettes on the rooftops and we had to take them on and were there all night before we managed to get the job done."

Private Mark Canelle, now the driver of an armoured vehicle, was a rifleman during the PWRR's first Iraq tour five years ago, and is also happy to see a more stable country than the one he first encountered.

"The Iraqi army is now a lot more confident about doing their jobs," says the 26-year-old from Eastbourne in England.

"I've been on a couple of patrols with them and they are improving. It's not like it was a couple of years ago when there was violence everywhere and I think we've done a lot to bring that about. I hope it stays quiet."

For Corporal Wrigglesworth, however, thoughts are already turning to Afghanistan where many of the British soldiers think they will be heading next.

Currently an acting Sergeant, Wrigglesworth will soon undertake his senior non-commissioned officers' course back in Britain that, if successfully completed, should secure his promotion. After three tours in Iraq though he is not gung ho about the prospect of more warfare.

"There's a lot of anticipation," he says. "The older soldiers have been in contacts already in Iraq and don't want to go there, but the young lads who haven't but have heard all the stories do, until the first time at least.

"I wouldn't say I am not scared but at the end of the day it is my job."

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