US-led forces ‘could leave within 18 months’

US-LED forces could leave Iraq within 18 months, Iraqi interim Interior Minister Falah al-Naqib said yesterday.

“I think we will not need the multinational, foreign forces, in this country within 18 months,” he told Britain’s Channel 4 News. “I think we will be able to depend on ourselves.”

Election officials said turnout had been higher than expected despite attacks by insurgents bent on destroying the poll.

At least 44 people died in assaults across the country.

US President George W. Bush, under pressure to start bringing troops home after the election, has said US-led forces must keep going to help the new government get its footing.

However, Mr al-Naqib said Iraqi security forces would need only 18 months. “We are building our forces and I think we will need 18 months - it’s my estimate - that we will have a quite reasonable-sized, well-trained force, well-equipped to protect the country. So I believe we won’t need more than 18 months.”

Meanwhile, Germany said yesterday that Iraq’s election was a sign of the country’s resolve to determine its own future, but stressed that only an “inclusive approach” to the political process could lay the foundation for democracy.

Reports of strong voter turnout showed Iraqis had not been cowed by violent attempts to derail the election, a spokesman for Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said.

He said it was the German government’s opinion that all Iraq’s ethnic and religious groups needed to be included in the ongoing political process.