Britain seeks legal resolution for deployment after June 30

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LONDON -- Britain warned yesterday that it will need a firm legal framework based on a U.N. resolution or a deal with the new Iraq government in order to keep its troops operating in the country after a June 30 transfer of sovereignty.

At the same time, army chiefs reportedly have been urging Prime Minister Tony Blair to put off announcing that Britain will replace the withdrawing Spanish forces with about 1,700 fresh British troops in and around the Shi'ite flash point of Najaf.

"The senior British military are strongly opposed to taking over the Spanish areas of command or sending further troops," an unnamed senior British source told the Guardian newspaper.

The newspaper said they are seeking assurances that by the time new forces arrive -- mainly infantry but also elements of an air-assault unit -- their position will not have been made precarious by precipitate U.S. military actions.

Asked at a press conference about the prospects for future British forces operating in Iraq, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw supplied a carefully phrased answer.

"I can give an absolute assurance that British forces will operate strictly within the law," he said, adding that the legal basis of their presence "depends on the nature of the caretaker government and the wording of the new U.N. resolution."

Prime Minister Tony Blair sought earlier this week to quash speculation about a new deployment to Iraq, saying at a press conference with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi: "The advice that we have is that we have sufficient troops to do the job."

But, he acknowledged, "We keep the question of troops under review at all times."

British military lawyers and generals privately have been advising the government to postpone any increase in troop strength until a new Iraqi government takes power and the legal basis for their presence is clarified.

Otherwise, the lawyers fear, their troops could be accused of war crimes.