Draft agreement promises troop withdrawal by 2011 | World news | The Guardian

Draft agreement promises troop withdrawal by 2011 | World news | The Guardian: "Draft agreement promises troop withdrawal by 2011

US troops will withdraw from Iraq by December 31 2011 and American and British soldiers deployed there in the interim period could face prosecution in Iraq's courts for serious, premeditated 'off-duty' crimes under the terms of a draft status of forces agreement outlined yesterday by officials in Baghdad and Washington.

The draft agreement, which is intended to replace the UN security council mandate that legitimised the US-led invasion in March 2003, and subsequent occupation, follows months of fraught negotiations. It must be ratified by the Iraqi parliament before the end of the year.

Passage is far from guaranteed. Iraq's most influential Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, said last week that any pact must have the support of Iraq's people and political parties before it could be endorsed. Some of the deal's terms may also prove controversial in the US.

But the agreement, if implemented, would mark a milestone in the slow, often painful evolution of independent, Iraqi self-government since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein five years ago. It also represents a climbdown by the Bush administration, which had previously"