BAGHDAD, June 19: Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced on Monday that foreign troops would quit the southern province of Muthanna next month, in the first such handover to Iraq’s fledgling security forces.

“We have a plan to transfer security from coalition troops to local forces and the first governorate where it will take place is the province of Al-Muthanna next month,” Mr Maliki said.

The sparsely-populated and mainly Shia province, whose capital is Samawa, has been largely immune from the daily violence plaguing other areas. It is patrolled by 400 Australian and 250 British troops.

And some 600 Japanese service personnel are deployed on humanitarian duties in the province on Tokyo’s first military mission in a country where hostilities are under way since World War II.

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso said on Sunday that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi would probably announce the pullout of the Japanese troops before a meeting with US President George Bush later this month.

But Japan pledged on Monday to keep supporting Iraq after its historic troop mission ends, offering loans to build bridges and roads in Samawa.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s spokesman hailed Mr Maliki’s announcement as a ‘significant step’.

“That means they are taking control of civil institutions as well as the security responsibility,” he said, but added the handover would not mean that the British soldiers deployed in the province would return home.

On an unannounced visit to Baghdad on Monday, British Defence Minister Des Browne called for a major security crackdown in Basra, Iraq’s main southern city, along the lines of a similar operation under way in the capital.—AFP