CAMBRIDGE - Foreign troops in Iraq could withdraw within one or two years, by which time home-grown forces should be ready to take over, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said Friday.
Talabani made the comments in a speech at the Cambridge Union Society to students from the prestigious University of Cambridge in eastern England.
Asked when US and British troops should leave Iraq, Talabani replied: "I think within one or two years we will be able to recruit our forces... and tell goodbye to our friends."
The president also expressed agreement with Britain's likely next prime minister, finance minister Gordon Brown, who said earlier Friday that "mistakes" had been made in Iraq.
Brown's comments, which came as he launched his campaign to take over leadership of the centre-left Labour Party from departing Prime Minister Tony Blair, were seen by commentators as a bid to distance himself from the war's divisive legacy.
"Of course -- a big mistake was refusing to reform Iraq's interim government in the beginning of the liberation of Iraq," Talabani said, when asked about Brown's comments.
"The second big mistake was turning liberation to occupation by the decision 1483 from the Security Council.
"There are other mistakes," he added.
Talabani also expressed concern over the US House of Representatives' decision to require President George W. Bush to show progress in Iraq by July before releasing further funding for the war.
"We are concerned and we hope that Congress will review this decision and help the American army to stay until the Iraqi army will be ready to replace them," he told reporters.
Questioned over when that might be, he reiterated: "I think within one or two years."
The House of Representatives voted 221 to 205 late Thursday to release 43 billion dollars (32 billion euros) in emergency war funds.
05/11/2007 15:47 GMT