With the stroke of a pen, Britain yesterday signed away the last of four Iraqi provinces that it has struggled to secure since 2003, heralding a new era for the people of Basra and largely ending the British military’s combat role in Iraq.

David Miliband, on his first trip to the country as Foreign Secretary, witnessed the handover at a ceremony in the departure lounge of Basra airport, several miles outside the city and one of the only areas deemed safe enough for a gathering of Westerners.

“The Basra story is two years of the situation getting better, two years getting massively worse and then six months getting massively better on the security front,” he said, summing up the British experience in a province that suffers from militia violence, corruption and increasing religious extremism.

Polite applause rippled around the faded airport lounge as Major-General Graham Binns, commanding officer of British Forces in southern Iraq, and Mohammed al-Waili, the Basra governor, signed the legal documents finalising the deal.

“This ceremony signifies the official transfer of the province’s security file from the coalition to the Iraqi security forces,” General Binns told an audience of about a hundred local tribal, political and security leaders as well as British and other coalition officials.

On his previous tour of duty, during the invasion, the commander led British Forces into the city, which boasts Iraq’s only port as well as a wealth of oil and gas reserves.

“I came to rid Basra of its enemies and I now formally hand Basra back to its friends,” said General Binns, who addressed the ceremony along with Mr al-Waili, Lieutenant-General Mohan al-Firaiji, the top Iraqi commander in Basra, and Mowafaq al-Rubaie, the central Government’s national security adviser.

Seated at a table decorated with peach-coloured ribbons, pink flowers and pink tissue boxes, the three Iraqi representatives were also upbeat about the future, while acknowledging that many challenges lay ahead.

“This is a great, great, great day for Iraq,” Mr al-Rubaie said. “It is a huge test as well for the Baswaris to be in charge of themselves and to determine their fate and to rebuild their city.” In contrast to the low-key hand-over ceremony at the airport, where British forces have their headquarters, thousands of Iraqi soldiers and police paraded around the Basra Palace compound inside the city, which British troops vacated at the end of August.

Emergency lights flashing, armoured pickup trucks and Humvees rolled through the walled-off street, while gunboats took to the Shatt al-Arab waterway in what was described as the largest show of military strength since Saddam Hussein’s time.

Ordinary people were not invited to the spectacle. Those who wanted to could watch it on television, but most went about a normal day’s business.

Mr Miliband described the hand-over of Basra, the most economically and strategically important of the four provinces that had been under British control, as an opportunity for Iraqis to show what they could do.

He said that British policy now had to focus on politics, economics and security across Iraq, rather than security in the south east.

“The main thing is that this part of Iraq, its future, has got to be determined by Iraqis and by politics. The next two or three months are very important,” he said after the ceremony.

Basra locals were largely excited to see a reduced British presence, though in reality British troops have not conducted regular patrols inside the city for months.

But many expressed disappointment that the past four and a half years had failed to result in significant gains in reconstruction. Basra, despite its economic potential, still suffers from high unemployment because of security fears.

“Today is a big day for the police and army in Basra,” said Kareer Sabor, a police captain. “I feel as though we have just been born and we have many things to do.”

Britain’s presence is due to shrink to 2,500 troops from 4,500 by next spring.

One group that will not be happy to see the soldiers go are the military interpreters. They have become a target of militia death squads who regard the English-speaking Iraqis as traitors.

Mr Miliband, who in October announced an assistance package for Iraqi interpreters and other staff that worked for the military or a British government department in Iraq, defended the scheme against accusations that it was inadequate and designed only to benefit a small group.

“We are determined to do the right thing by people who have been fiercely loyal and hard working for us.”

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