US:THE IRAQI government boosted Barack Obama's election chances yesterday by publicly backing his timetable for withdrawal of all United States combat troops by 2010.
The main Iraqi government spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh - speaking after Mr Obama met Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki - told reporters: "We cannot give any timetables or dates but the Iraqi government believes the end of 2010 is the appropriate time for the withdrawal of forces."
He added that if violence, which the US and Iraqi governments say has fallen by 85 per cent since this time last year, was to worsen then the Iraqis would rethink.
Mr Obama, who described talks with Mr Maliki as "very constructive", proposes that all US combat troops be out of Iraq by April 2010. There are 156,000 US soldiers in Iraq and Kuwait but only about a third are combat troops and Mr Obama has avoided putting a figure on how many of the others will remain.
The Democratic presidential candidate, on his first visit to Iraq since January 2006, flew into Basra in the morning before continuing to Baghdad to meet Maliki, US commander Gen David Petraeus, and US ambassador Ryan Crocker.
Mr Dabbagh said Mr Obama, who is part of a congressional delegation along with fellow senators Chuck Hagel and Jack Reed, did not raise withdrawal plans with Maliki. "Obama did not speak about anything which concerns the Iraqi government as he does not have any official capacity."
The Iraqi government insisted it was not endorsing Mr Obama over his Republican rival John McCain, and it was coincidental that Mr Obama's timetable is within that envisaged by the Iraqis.
The Republican presidential candidate has taunted his rival for not visiting Iraq in the last two years. Mr McCain told NBC that the reduction in violence vindicated his push last year for an increase in US troop levels, a move Mr Obama opposed.
"I hope he will have a chance to admit that he badly misjudged the situation and he was wrong," Mr McCain said.
Mr McCain's spokeswoman, Nancy Pfotenhauer, denied that the Iraqi government's support for a 2010 timetable undermined him. "We should be able to draw down troops as soon as conditions on the ground make that the right thing to do," she said, noting that Mr McCain had said last month he envisaged troops being withdrawn by 2013. Mr Dabbagh's comments came less than 24 hours after he had claimed Mr Maliki was misquoted when he made similar remarks about the timing in an interview with German magazine Der Spiegel. The denial followed a call from the US embassy in Baghdad seeking clarification. But Der Spiegel released a tape of the interview that backed its version.
On July 3rd, Mr Obama appeared to back away from his aim of complete withdrawal of combat troops within 16 months of being sworn in as president but, after a backlash from Democratic activists, he insisted he was sticking to the original timetable. - (Guardian service)