Obama meets Maliki as US exits Iraq

WASHINGTON (AFP) - President Barack Obama met Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki Monday, marking America's exit from a war launched to oust Saddam Hussein but which left a wounding legacy for both nations. "This is a momentous visit," said White House spokesman Jay Carney. "The war is over and the troops are coming home." Obama held talks with Maliki at the White House, as the last US troops of a garrison that once numbered nearly 170,000, prepared to leave this month, ending a nearly nine-year presence following the US invasion. Maliki and Obama met in the Oval Office, and were later to hold a press conference before visiting Arlington National Cemetery where many of the nearly 4,500 US war dead lie buried. Tens of thousands of Iraqis also died in a war, insurgency and sectarian violence that left Iraq with the stirrings of a democratic political system but facing territorial challenges from neighbour Iran. The meeting will be an important full circle moment in Obama's presidency, as his initial opposition to an unpopular war as an unknown Illinois state lawmaker fuelled his then unlikely rise to the pinnacle of US power. Since then though, Obama has proved a steely commander-in-chief, escalating the Afghan war even as he pulled troops out of Iraq and intensified a ruthless US covert campaign against Al-Qaeda leaders and foot soldiers. Maliki met Obama less than a month before the complete withdrawal of US troops from Iraq and more than eight years after the launch of the US-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein. Maliki will also see Vice President Joe Biden and lawmakers to discuss security, energy, education and justice. The US and Iraqi leaders "will hold talks on the removal of US military forces from Iraq, and our efforts to start a new chapter in the comprehensive strategic partnership between the United States and Iraq," the White House said. The full withdrawal from Iraq was mandated under an agreement concluded by the former administration of President George W. Bush. Long-running talks designed to provide for a future US training mission by US troops failed over the issue of providing immunity for US troops in Iraq, though both sides say they are still talking about future military exchanges. Nato secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Monday announced that a mission to train Iraqi security forces will end at the turn of the year. "The North Atlantic Council has decided to undertake the permanent withdrawal of the Nato Training Mission-Iraq personnel from Iraq by 31 December 2011," Rasmussen said in a statement. The news provided confirmation after Iraq's top security adviser Falah al-Fayadh told AFP of the decision in an interview aboard a flight transporting Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to Washington.