"The message to Iraqi people is that we are staying here and we are going to get the job done and I am a patient man," Brims told Britain's Channel 4 television news.

"One day we will be in Basra," he said.

British troops have been positioned around Basra since the second day of the war, but hopes that its population would swiftly rise up to welcome the US-led forces have so far proved unfounded, with stiff resistance put up by Iraqi soldiers and Fedayeen militia.

"We always knew that we were going to be resisted by the Iraqi army forces and irregular forces," Brims said. "We are attending to both of them.

Iraqi forces have put up less resistance than some people thought and the irregulars are putting up more resistance, said Britain's land forces chief.

"I think there is an element of suspicion of coalition troops," he said.

"I don't think they mistrust us. They have lived under a regime that they don't like and I think that until we have removed that regime we are on probation," he said.

"What we have got to do in all the areas is remove the regime's control over everything that goes on in these places," he said.

"We have done it in some -- Al Faw, Umm Qasr -- we are doing it in Al Zubayr at the moment, and we will continue to do it in all the areas that we need to do it," he said.

WAR.WIRE