Republican White House candidate John McCain on Tuesday warned security conditions must dictate troop withdrawals from Iraq, after Baghdad said it wanted a timetable for US soldiers to leave.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's comment on Monday that Iraq was seeking such a timetable in talks with Washington on the future US force structure in the country reverberated across the White House race.
McCain, who has made staunch support for the US troops 'surge' escalation strategy a centerpiece of his campaign, said that recent security gains were fragile and should not be put at risk.
But his Democratic foe Barack Obama, an early opponent of the war who wants to pull out most combat troops within 16 months, said it was encouraging that Iraq now wanted to work out a timetable for withdrawal.
"The Iraqis have made it very clear, including the meetings I had with the president and foreign minister of Iraq, that it is based on conditions on the ground," McCain said in an interview with MSNBC.
"I have always said we will come home with honor and with victory and not through a set timetable," he said, adding that Iraqis would act in their national interest and the United States would act in its own interests.
"We will withdraw, but ... the victory we have achieved so far is fragile and (the redeployment) has to be dictated by events and on the ground," McCain said, mirroring the Pentagon's line on the issue.
Obama and McCain have been waging a fierce political battle over their plans for US policy in Iraq, an issue that looks set to dominate the presidency whichever of them emerges triumphant from November's general election.
On Monday, Obama cast Maliki's remarks as in line with his own policy on Iraq, which McCain has branded a strategy for defeat.
"I think that his statement is consistent with my view about how withdrawals should proceed," the Illinois senator told reporters in St. Louis, Missouri.
"I think it's encouraging ... that the prime minister himself now acknowledges that in cooperation with Iraq, it's time for American forces to start sending out a timeframe for the withdrawal.
"I hope that this administration as well as John McCain is listening to what Prime Minister Al-Maliki has to say."
Maliki told Arab ambassadors on Monday he was pressing for such a timetable in negotiations with Washington on an agreement on the status of US forces in Iraq beyond 2008.
