BAGHDAD, Dec 17 - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown arrived in Baghdad for an unannounced visit on Wednesday and was received by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Iraqi state television said.

The visit, Brown’s fourth to Iraq as prime minister, follows the drafting by the Iraqi cabinet of a law that paves the way for Britain’s 4,100 troops to withdraw by the end of July 2009, more than six years after the U.S.-led invasion.