BRITISH officials in Iraq will disengage entirely from their American colleagues in the coming weeks, with the opening of a British embassy in Baghdad, where diplomats, soldiers and other staff will be under one roof.

Workmen are racing to finish the embassy building, located in a former Baath party school, which will be opened next month. An adjoining plot of land has been earmarked to build accommodation for the estimated 70 British staff who are currently housed in a bomb-proof trailer park near by. Most of the diplomats are already in place and will soon be joined by Edward Chaplin, the future ambassador.

The opening of the biggest British mission in the Middle East is intended to demonstrate clearly to the Iraqis that the coalition authority no longer exists and that, henceforth, Britain will have normal bilateral relations with a sovereign Iraqi government. Similar changes will take place across Iraq, where the Foreign and Commonwealth Office will open consulates in Basra and Kirkuk.

The other clear message is that Britain is no longer part of the US-led authority and its officials will stop working side by side with their American counterparts in directly running the country.

“We will disengage from the Americans,” one source said.

British military and other advisers, as well as thousands of troops, will remain to help the caretaker Iraqi government. But sources insisted yesterday that it was up to the Iraqis to decide whether they wanted their assistance. If not, they would be withdrawn.

The new multimillion-pound British embassy is a sand-coloured building set in a walled, tree-lined compound and was chosen after the old embassy on the Tigris was abandoned because it was too vulnerable to attack.

Converting the Baathist school for use as a chancery building has not proved difficult, but the interior has posed some unusual problems. The building’s walls and ceilings are decorated with ornate tiles bearing the Arabic initials “S.H.” for Saddam Hussein. Tearing them out and replacing them would be costly, but leaving them in could be embarrassing. “I suppose every time we see them it will remind us why we came here, ” said one diplomat.

The new embassy is located just inside the green zone, the heavily fortified area of Baghdad sealed off by cement walls and barbed wire from the rest of the capital. But it will be distinct from the main American headquarters, which will remain inside the Republican Palace, Iraq’s main presidential building that was used by Saddam Hussein to greet foreign dignitaries.

Although the US State Department is planning to spend $1 billion (£560 million) on a new embassy, the biggest American mission in the world, work is far from complete. The Americans will continue to occupy the Republican Palace, a move which many in Iraq regard as deeply insensitive.

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