The region's population is about 5 million, of which about 85 percent are Shi'a. The division who's responsible (for this area and civil ?) people that I have is a little over 13,000 troops. About two-thirds of these are British. The remaining third is made up of an Italian brigade, supported by the Carabinieri; a Dutch, Danish and Romanian battle group; of Portuguese police; Norwegian and New Zealand engineers; some police from the Czech Republic -- they had a hospital in the town, which did some great work -- a small contingent from Lithuanian -- Lithuania; and two explosive ordnance experts from Iceland.

I work alongside with over 15,000 Iraq police officers; some 2,000 members of the new Civil Defense Corps -- and there are more being trained -- a new river police service and border force of about another thousand officers. My mission is quite simply to help to create the conditions that will allow the southeast Iraq to make a swift and successful recovery, and we're doing this with the consent and active support of the Iraqi people in the South.

"GEN. LAMB: Yeah, the question was about are the British forces more experienced in dealing with the Iraqi people, and therefore did the Iraqis ask us to assist? And the answer is, -- and the experience line was being questioned against my American partners in this coalition. A number of years ago, I'd have said without a question of doubt the British were very much more experienced in dealing with some of these issues. One should not underestimate just how busy the United States have been in the Balkans and elsewhere around the world in gaining some of those experiences. Put against the benchmark of where we are, I sense they're just slightly behind the drag curve. And that's a result of thirty years over in Northern Ireland, working in Africa and then working in the Middle East in particular over many years. So I sense actually we've just got a bit of an advantage over most of the forces we have here. But when I look around the sum of the experience, there are very few force elements -- and it's wrong to just judge in effect a force by the individual you'll speak -- you'll meet on the street, whether he be from Birmingham or from Baltimore. The truth is, actually both of those guys will have probably a little bit of experience. I met some paratroopers up here the other day from the British, and they'd only been in the army for two months. So they got zero experience. They come with -- (inaudible.) So it would be wrong to do that.

But the officers, the NCOs and the leadership of those organizations, I keep on coming across the same faces -- (laughs) -- friends around the world, whether they be from the United States, whether they be from the Netherlands, whether they be from Italy, whether they be from the Norwegians, we keep on coming across -- you know, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Macedonia, Bosnia. So there's a level of experience in doing business."