IRAQ NEWS SOURCE REPORTS AL-MALIKI AND OBAMA HAVE MET

Maliki, Obama tackle future of U.S. military presence in Iraq – source

Baghdad - Voices of Iraq
Monday , 21 /07 /2008 Time 1:09:06
http://www.aswataliraq.info/look/english/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrArticle=86499&NrIssue=2&NrSection=1


BAGHDAD, July 21 (VOI) – Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and visiting U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama discussed a number of topics including the future of U.S. military presence in Iraq, according to a cabinet media source on Monday.

"Maliki received Obama as soon as he arrived in Baghdad and the two sides discussed the possibility of U.S. troop cuts in Iraq," the source, who asked that he is name not be revealed, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq – (VOI).The source said the Illinois Senator would possibly meet other Iraqi officials today.Earlier in the day the U.S. army's media advisor Abdellatif Rayan told VOI Obama arrived in the Iraqi capital as part of a tour he started with Afghanistan earlier this week.Obama had pledged to withdraw U.S. combat troops from Iraq if he won the presidential elections to be held next November.The U.S. White House hopeful had paid a single visit to Iraq in January 2006.