ARAB-EUROPEAN RELATIONS - Sep 25 - Iraq Insurgents' Ferocity Wasn't Expected, Blair Says.

PM Tony Blair says he did not expect the ferocity of the insurgency in Iraq, but insists that British troops will stay as long as the Iraqi government needed them. As Blair's governing Labour Party gathered for its annual conference, the PM said he had not set a deadline for withdrawing 8,500 British soldiers from Iraq. "There is no arbitrary date being set", he said in an interview with the BBC. But Def Sec John Reid said British troops could begin handing over their responsibilities to Iraqi soldiers and the police next year. Blair also insisted that two British soldiers rescued from an Iraqi jail last week would not be handed over to the Iraqi authorities. The two soldiers, operating undercover, were arrested in southern Iraq after allegedly shooting two Iraqi police officers who had tried to detain them. A British armoured patrol surrounded the jail in Basra where the two were held and crashed through the prison walls to rescue them. The opposition Liberal Democrats have stepped up demands for British troops to withdraw, a call backed by some in Blair's own party. Blair was asked whether he had expected it to be so difficult to restore order to Iraq following the US-led invasion. "No, I didn't expect quite the same sort of ferocity from every single element in the Middle East that came in and is doing their best to disrupt the political process", he said, referring to insurgents who have flooded into Iraq from neighbouring countries like Syria and Iran. "But I have absolutely no doubt as to what we should do. We should stick with it".