US Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Iraq on Thursday on a surprise trip just two days after a long-planned pullback of American forces from the conflict-hit nation's towns and cities.
Biden was greeted at Baghdad airport by Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, who did not say how long the visit would last but said meetings with political leaders would follow shortly.
"This visit comes at a very important time after the withdrawal of US forces," Zebari told AFP.
"It is a very important visit and Mr Biden will hold meetings with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and other senior leaders."
Biden's trip came just after President Barack Obama asked his vice president to take on a new role overseeing the US departure from Iraq and Washington's effort to promote internal political reconciliation in Baghdad.
"Vice President Biden has arrived in Iraq to visit US troops and to meet with Iraqi leaders, including President Jalal Talabani," Maliki and parliament speaker Ayad al-Samarrai, the White House said.
It added that in his talks with Iraqi leaders Biden would renew the US commitment to complete the terms of the US-Iraqi accord governing the future role of US forces in Iraq and continue the drawdown of US troops.
"He will discuss with Iraq's leaders the importance of achieving the political progress that is necessary to ensure the nation's long-term stability," the White House said in a statement.
It is Biden's first trip to Iraq since he was sworn in as vice president in January, but he previously made repeated trips to the country when he was chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee.
The White House said Tuesday that Biden would work closely with General Ray Odierno, the top US commander in Iraq, and the US ambassador to Baghdad, Christopher Hill, as US forces prepare to exit completely by the end of 2011.
"The vice president has been asked by the president to oversee the policy," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said, speaking on the day that US troops withdrew from Iraqi urban centres under last November's accord with Baghdad.
Biden would work with Iraqis "toward overcoming their political differences and achieving the type of reconciliation that we all understand has yet to fully take place but needs to take place," he said.
"Given his knowledge of the region, the number of times he's been there, he's perfectly suited for this type of role."
But Gibbs said an idea once put forward by Biden, of dividing Iraq's Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish communities into a federation of autonomous zones, was not on the table for the Obama administration.
He said the vice president's role would also include meetings with the key players on US Iraq policy as well as travel to the country.
