Obama meets U.S. commanders in Iraq
 By Dean Yates and Wisam Mohammed
BAGHDAD - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama met Iraqi leaders and U.S. military commanders in Baghdad on Monday in a visit overshadowed by the question of when U.S. troops should go home.
U.S. strategy in Iraq and troop levels are central issues in the November election race between the first-term senator from Illinois and Republican candidate John McCain.
Obama flew into Iraq to assess security in the country, where violence has fallen to its lowest level since early 2004.
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Obama did not mention his pledge to remove U.S. combat troops within 16 months if he takes office in talks with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
But in comments that suggest Iraq and Obama are not far apart on the issue, Dabbagh said the government had a vision of all foreign combat forces leaving by the end of 2010 if security conditions allowed.
"We cannot give any timetables or dates but the Iraqi government believes the end of 2010 is the appropriate time for the withdrawal of (American) forces," Dabbagh told reporters.
On Sunday the Iraqi government had denied Maliki told a German magazine in an interview that he backed Obama's plan to withdraw combat troops within 16 months. The government said Maliki's remarks to Der Spiegel were translated incorrectly.
There are more than 140,000 American troops in Iraq.
Obama said in very brief remarks he had a "very constructive discussion" with Maliki.
Television pictures showed the two men smiling and shaking hands before they sat down for talks.
Maliki suggested earlier this month setting a timetable for U.S. troops to leave Iraq, but has given no dates.
Obama has welcomed Maliki's suggestion but some Iraqis insist that the army and police cannot go it alone and that a premature withdrawal of U.S. troops could open the door to the sort of violence that nearly tore Iraq apart not so long ago.
Indeed, Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, a Sunni Arab, said he told Obama that while he agreed with a withdrawal timetable in principle Iraq's forces needed to be ready.
"What about a security vacuum? What about upgrading the capacity of the Iraqi armed forces? ... We have to look all these requirements," Hashemi later told reporters.
CHALLENGE OF IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN
Obama visited Afghanistan over the weekend, the other big foreign policy challenge the next president will face.
He called the situation in Afghanistan "precarious and urgent" and said Washington should start planning to transfer more troops there from Iraq.
McCain has attacked Obama for not visiting Iraq recently to get a close look at conditions.
The Republican candidate has been to Iraq eight times while Obama's only other trip was in January 2006, a month before militants blew up a revered Shi'ite shrine in Samarra in an attack that plunged Iraq into vicious sectarian fighting.
Obama, who is visiting Iraq as part of a U.S. congressional delegation, was greeted at Baghdad's airport by General David Petraeus, the U.S. military commander in the country. He will hold formal talks later with Petraeus.
Obama has scheduled no news conferences in Iraq and his visit has been shrouded in secrecy for security reasons.
Trying to boost his foreign policy credentials, Obama will also travel to other countries in the Middle East and visit major powers in Europe this week.
Speaking on NBC's "Today Show", McCain criticised Obama's position on Iraq.
"I'm glad that Senator Obama is going to get a chance for the first time to sit down with General David Petraeus and understand what the surge was all about and why it succeeded and why we are winning the war," McCain said.
"I hope he will have a chance to admit that he badly misjudged the situation and he was wrong."
U.S. President George W. Bush ordered 30,000 extra troops to Iraq in early 2007 to try to drag the country back from all-out war between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunni Arabs.
The last of those reinforcements depart this week.
The sharp cut in violence in Iraq has led Baghdad to become increasingly assertive about its own security capabilities.
Indeed, Maliki and Bush agreed last week to set a "time horizon" for reducing American forces in Iraq.
It was the closest the Bush administration has come to acknowledging the need for a timeframe for U.S. troop cuts.
Additional reporting by Waleed Ibrahim, Tim Cocks, Mohammed Abbas; Editing by Ralph Boulton.
| 
