IT HAS been 13 long years since the British Embassy in Baghdad last hosted a party, but last night the venerable Ottoman building on the banks of the Tigris once again echoed to the sounds of a very British celebration.

The Queen’s birthday party, the high point of any diplomatic social calendar, returned with a vengeance when about 150 diplomats, spies, soldiers and assorted Iraqi worthies gathered in the mission’s yellow-brick courtyard to celebrate the re-establishment of a British presence in Iraq.

Similar functions elsewhere are often drab affairs, marked by dull chat and warm gin and tonics, but the Baghdad bash was truly exceptional.

As Christopher Segar, the British Ambassador, put the finishing touches to the preparations machinegun fire erupted 200 yards away when American troops confronted a group of Iraqi bank robbers and engaged in a long gunbattle.

The waiters adjusted their tunics and checked their white gloves. British paratroopers looked up with mild curiosity. But no one was going to let a little gunfire spoil weeks of preparation. “It happens all the time. Don’t take any notice,” said one of the British bodyguards assigned to look after the VIPs as they entered the compound. “We’re all used to it now.”

Paul Bremer, the US diplomat in charge of the country’s provisional government, arrived in a cavalcade worthy of the US President himself.

American generals came with Humvee escorts, the Australians bought an armoured car, and so many vehicles were parked on the embassy lawn that it looked like an armoured invasion force was assembling for a new mission.

Beneath a fluttering Union Jack a sniper team from the Parachute Regiment stood guard on the embassy’s roof. Troops with assault rifles patrolled the grounds. The VIPs brought with them so many bodyguards that a separate party had to be arranged for dozens of large men wearing ill-fitting suits and sunglasses who balanced sub-machineguns in one hand and drinks in the other. A gleaming brass cannon — a First World War cannon captured from the Turks — stood proudly in the courtyard, but that at least was purely ceremonial.

At the real party, there was a strong sense of travelling back in time. A brass quintet from the Black Watch played Colonel Bogey from the gallery, and guests surveyed with astonishment the pictures on the walls. They included portraits of the Queen taken 30 years ago, a photograph of Westminster Bridge taken long before traffic was a problem, and a cheery, bewhiskered Beefeater who looked like something from a BOAC travel brochure.

Initially the conversation centred on the chances of success in transforming Iraq. After a few drinks it turned to the heat, who had access to a pool to swim in, and how everyone wanted to escape before the heat became unbearable in July. The Ambassador and his guests toasted not the Queen, but “the future of Iraq” with beer, whisky, gin and soft drinks.

As for the embassy, last night may have been its last in the service of Her Majesty’s Government. Although it is the first foreign mission in Baghdad to be restored to its proper use, it has suffered badly from a decade of neglect when Britain did not have diplomatic relations with Iraq. The Foreign Office is planning to build a new mission in the grounds. But last night, as guests headed home to beat the night curfew, a little part of Iraq remained forever British.

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