COPENHAGEN - Danish and British troop withdrawals from Iraq showed Iraqis were ready to assume responsibility for their own security, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said in Copenhagen on Monday.
"We see this as a sign of Iraqi self-confidence," Zebari said during a press conference with his Danish counterpart Per Stig Moeller.
"The efforts that have been put in the training, in the build up of (Iraqi) armed forces are reaching a level where we are capable of replacing those (foreign) troops" in the south of the country, Zebari said.
Denmark last week announced the withdrawal in August of its 430 ground troops stationed in Basra in southern Iraq under British command.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced simultaneously that British forces would be reduced by 1,600 to 5,500 over the coming months.
"The timing ... didn`t come as a surprise to us," Zebari said.
Iraq hoped its neighbours, invited to a peace conference to be held in Baghdad in mid-March, would act to prevent the country from sliding into civil war, Zebari said.
In January, Baghdad invited ministers from Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey as well as Egypt, Bahrain, the Arab League and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference to the meeting.
Iraq sought "to engage them constructively in helping the Iraqi government or to provide a more conducive regional environment for our security plan to succeed," Zebari said.