Biden, Maliki focus on economic ties

US Vice President Joe Biden had talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Thursday focusing on long-term economic ties and Iraqi officials said the idea of delaying a US military pullout did not come up. Biden was on his first visit to Iraq since Maliki was reappointed for a second term after months of post-election wrangling and cost-cutting Republicans took over the US House of Representatives.
Biden, picked by President Barack Obama as his point person for Iraq, met Maliki as the US military prepares for a full withdrawal eight years after ousting Saddam Hussein. Fewer than 50,000 US troops remain in Iraq, compared with 144,000 in January 2009, when Obama and Biden took office. They have been focused since the end of August on advising and assisting Iraqi forces as they take the lead in the fight against a weakened yet resilient insurgency.
Maliki is under popular pressure not to extend the US military presence beyond 2010 even though Iraqi and US officials say Iraq will be unable to defend its borders on its own. It will not have a fully functional air force by then. The US public does not appear to be in the mood for new or extended overseas military ventures, and US Republicans, who won control of the House of Representatives in November, have promised to cut government spending and debt. As Biden prepared to set off for meetings, three roadside bombs planted near two Sunni and one Shia Muslim mosque in Baghdad killed two people and wounded around 13.
A senior administration official said the United States was adhering to the agreed timetable for full withdrawal by December 31, 2011. But if Maliki asked the United States to stay, the Obama administration would listen to a request to do so in some form.
"We would certainly listen to a request if the Iraqi government were to make one," the official said. Ali al-Moussawi, a media adviser to Maliki, told Reuters the departure of US troops from Iraq had not come up in talks. "The issue of the withdrawal has been clearly stated in the security pact, this is why it hasn't been discussed," he said.