Political pressure from the United States delayed the British withdrawal from Basra for five months, Britain's army commander said in an interview published in the United Kingdom on Monday.

Britain departed from Basra Palace last week, but it could have left as early as April, the Daily Telegraph quotes Brig. James Bashall as saying.

He said the United States pressured Britain to delay.

"In April we could have come out and done the transition completely and it would have been the right thing to do, but politics prevented that," Bashall was quoted as saying. "The Americans asked us to stay for longer."

Britain withdrew from its last base inside Basra last week, moving all its forces to an airport camp on the city's outskirts. Troop numbers are currently being reduced by 500, to 5,000, and Prime Minister Gordon Brown is expected to make an announcement on the future of British forces in Iraq next month.

The decision drew scorn from American critics who accused the British of conceding defeat in the south just as the U.S. "surge" strategy is making itself felt elsewhere.

Retired U.S. army Gen. Jack Keane, who was vice-chief of staff when the Iraq war was launched in 2003, said in an interview last month that the U.S. was frustrated with London's disengagement from the area.

Stephen Biddle, a military adviser who counselled U.S. Gen. David Petraeus in 2006, said Britain's Basra withdrawal would come to be seen as a "major blunder in terms of military history."

Senior British military figures hit back, with retired Gen. Mike Jackson, who led the British army during the Iraq invasion, calling U.S. postwar policy in the country "intellectually bankrupt." Jackson was backed by a chorus of opposition politicians and a second retired general, Maj.-Gen. Tim Cross.

Bashall, speaking from Iraq, had his own message for Britain's U.S. critics.

"They are not down here, they don't know," he told the Telegraph.

Britain's Ministry of Defence had no immediate comment on Bashall's claim.