LONDON: The leader of the opposition Liberal Democrats criticised the government yesterday for its handling of the Iraq war, and demanded an exit strategy for British forces. In a keynote speech at his party's conference, Charles Kennedy urged voters to choose the Liberal Democrats over Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour Party and Britain's largest opposition group, the Conservative Party, during a national election expected on May 5."Tony Blair took us to war in Iraq on the basis of the supposed threat of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction," Kennedy said in Harrogate, a city in northern England. When the weapons couldn't be found, Blair then switched to saying that the reason for the war was the removal of Saddam, Kennedy said. "Of course Britain should honour its legal and moral responsibilities with regard to the situation in Iraq. But we need to focus on a proper exit strategy - as we warned at the outset. That should mean a phased withdrawal of British troops to coincide with the end of the United Nations mandate this year."
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