KEY POINTS:
London - The British backlash over the United States' handling of post-invasion Iraq grew yesterday as Iraqi officials prepared to free 6000 insurgents in a desperate bid to stop the country's Government from collapsing.
Major General Tim Cross, the top British officer involved in planning post-war Iraq, described Washington's policy as "fatally flawed" and said he raised serious concerns with then US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld about the possibility of the country descending into chaos.
But Rumsfeld "ignored" or "dismissed" his warnings, the general told the Sunday Mirror newspaper.
On Saturday, the head of the British Army during the 2003 invasion launched a fierce attack on the United States over its handling of Iraq.
General Sir Mike Jackson branded US post-invasion policy "intellectually bankrupt" and said Rumsfeld was "one of the most responsible for the current situation in Iraq".
Meanwhile the release of suspected Sunni insurgents from Iraqi jails is a last-ditch attempt to prevent the country's Government from collapsing under the strain of sectarian infighting. The release scheme, which could put some hardened combatants back on to the streets, is part of a high-stakes gamble by Iraq's Shiite-led Government to win back the confidence of Sunni politicians after increasingly bitter squabbling and walkouts.
The weekend's comments from Britain's top military officers come at an embarrassing time for the British Government, which has tried to soothe reported tensions with the United States over Iraq by insisting it will not cut and run from the southern province of Basra.
General Jack Keane, a former vice-chief of staff of the US Army, said last month there was "frustration" in Washington at the deteriorating security situation in the British-run area - triggering an angry reaction from some quarters in the British military.
In 2003, Cross was the deputy head of the coalition's Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance.
"Right from the very beginning we were all very concerned about the lack of detail that had gone into the post-war plan - and there is no doubt that Rumsfeld was at the heart of that process," the 56-year-old said.
"I had lunch with Rumsfeld in Washington before the invasion in 2003 and raised concerns about the need to internationalise the reconstruction of Iraq and work closely with the United Nations.
"I also raised concerns over the numbers of troops available to maintain security and aid reconstruction.
"He didn't want to hear that message. The US had already convinced themselves that Iraq would emerge reasonably quickly as a stable democracy.
"Anybody who tried to tell them anything that challenged that idea - they simply shut it out."
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who took over from Tony Blair on June 27, had been expected by some commentators to take a step back on Iraq policy. But he has resisted calls for a timetable for the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq.
The Pentagon announced last week that it is ready to intervene in southern Iraq to quell any unrest in Basra.
The Sunday Times newspaper, citing Government department officials, said Britain was preparing to hand over control of Basra to the Iraqi army as early as next month, in a move which would spark renewed claims from Washington that Britain was preparing to cut and run from Iraq.
Around 5500 British troops are training Iraqi security forces.
Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband and Defence Secretary Des Browne wrote a joint article in the Washington Post at the weekend saying it was "time to set the record straight" after weeks of "misplaced criticism".
"The question some people have asked is: have British forces failed in Basra? The answer is no," they added.
"We believe we remain on track to complete the return of full sovereignty to the Iraqi people as planned. The United Kingdom is sticking to the mission we took on four years ago."
Despite the American military claiming violence was down in the capital Baghdad, figures released yesterday showed Iraqi civilian casualties rose to 1773 last month, up 7 per cent from 1653 people killed in July.
Release gamble
* Up to 6000 suspected Sunni insurgents are to be freed from Iraqi jails.
* The move is a last-ditch attempt to prevent the country's Government from collapsing under the strain of sectarian in-fighting.
* It is understood to have been central to a key accord last week between the five main Shiite, Kurdish and Sunni political blocs.
* The plan is a tacit acknowledgement that many of the 24,000 security detainees in Iraqi jails are probably either innocent or small players arrested during large-scale anti-insurgent sweeps.
* Most such sweeps have taken place in Sunni areas, which helps account for the fact that Sunnis, say US commanders, make up 85 per cent of the jail population.
