Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his Iraqi counterpart, Nuri Maliki, announced in December that some British personnel would stay in Iraq after the end of UK combat operations on 27 May to help train Iraq’s navy.

In June, the government in Baghdad said a deal had been reached with Britain.

After Iraq’s lawmakers failed to endorse the proposal by a 31 July deadline, British ships left Iraqi waters to join other UK vessels in the Persian Gulf.

Iraq last week passed the legislation allowing their return.

Armed Forces Minister Bill Rammell said in a written statement to the House of Commons in London today that the UK will notify Iraq “in the next few days” that it is ready to bring the agreement into force.

He didn’t say when the British force will return or how many sailors will join the effort.

“Training of the Iraqi Navy has been paused since June, and it is important to resume this activity as soon as possible, to ensure that they quickly develop the capacity to protect their own territorial waters and the offshore oil platforms which are so vital to Iraq’s economic revival,” Rammell said, according to a Bloomberg report.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence wasn’t immediately available for comment. Under the proposal outlined by the Iraqi government in June, not more than 100 UK troops, their civilian support personnel and five Royal Navy ships would remain in Iraq for one year.

Britain removed all of its combat forces from Iraq by the end of July, ending a six-year deployment at their base near Basra in the south.

The UK had sent as many as 46,000 soldiers to help the US oust Saddam Hussein.

The British military scaled back as Iraqi forces took a bigger role in preventing terrorist attacks.

Published: 22 October 2009 15:57 GMT  | Last updated: 22 October 2009 16:03 GMT