Gorbachev calls for speedy Iraq withdrawal

Former Soviet Union president, Mikhail Gorbachev, has called on Britain and the US to withdraw troops from Iraq as soon as possible.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner, whose policies of glasnost and perestroika - openness and restructuring - did much to end the Cold War, said the presence of coalition troops in the fledgling democracy was engendering a dangerous religious gulf between Islam and the West.

He told Channel Four News that the Iraqi people themselves should decide the question of power.

He called for the immediate end of the occupation, with sovereignty returned to the Iraqi people.

"I would not drag out the presence of a coalition of troops from Christian countries.

'We have come to the point where we have, in effect, a clash between Christian states and Iraq, where they are Muslim. This is already growing into something of a religious conflict. That is very dangerous," he warned.

Mr Gorbachev said there was no justification for the Iraq war, adding that it was "a mistake".

The former Soviet leader is visiting Britain to promote the WMD Awareness Programme.