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 21 July Obama meets Iraq leaders
Barack Obama, (pictured) the US Democratic presidential candidate, today met Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, for talks in Baghdad.
Obama also met Jalal Talabani, the Iraqi president, and US troops stationed in the country. Reports said he is also expected to hold talks with General David Petraeus, the senior US commander in Iraq.
The visit marks Obama’s second trip to Iraq, and comes less than four months before the US presidential election on November 4.
Over the weekend Obama visited Afghanistan, the second front in the US's so-called "war on terror", and where the US has stationed more than 36,000 troops.
Obama has called for the gradual withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, at the rate of one or two brigades a month, as well as an end to combat operations within 16 months. He has said he favours leaving a residual force in the country to provide security for US personnel, to train Iraqis and to counter attacks by al-Qaeda.
Obama’s officials said his tour was aimed at an on-the-ground assessment of conditions in Iraq, as well as meeting leaders, whom he has previously criticised for not doing enough to rebuild Iraq.
Writing in the New York Times newspaper last week, Obama said:"Iraq's leaders have failed to invest tens of billions of dollars in oil revenues in rebuilding their own country, and they have not reached the political accommodation that was the stated purpose of the [US troop] surge."
Obama has pledged to downsize the number of US troops in Iraq and commit at least two more combat brigades to Afghanistan, if he is elected president.
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