Obama pressures Maliki on Iraq reconciliation

Barack Obama said he pressed Iraq's prime minister to make room in his government and security forces for all ethnic and religious groups to prevent a resurgence of the violence and turmoil that took the country to the verge of civil war.

Vowing to hold to agreements to pull all US forces out of Iraq by the end of 2011, The US president said he and Nouri al Maliki realised violence had not ended, and there "will be some tough days ahead".

"There are still those in Iraq who would murder innocent men, women and children," Mr Obama said in a Rose Garden appearance with Mr Maliki yesterday. "But make no mistake: those efforts will fail."

It was Mr Maliki's first visit to the White House since Mr Obama took office. The session came three weeks after US troops were pulled out of Iraqi cities and towns.

All US combat troops are to leave in August 2010 and the remainder of the US force is to be gone by the end of the next year.

Mr Obama has shifted his military focus to Afghanistan and the border regions of Pakistan, vowing to wipe out al Qaida sanctuaries and defeat Islamic extremist forces allied with the Taliban.

US officials, while praising improvement in Iraq's security forces, remain deeply worried that Mr Maliki's Shiite Muslim-dominated government has been unable or unwilling to reconcile with the country's minority Sunni Muslims and Kurds, who are non-Arabs, mainly from the Sunni sect of Islam.

The Sunnis had run Iraq until the ousting of Saddam Hussein in 2003 and are still smarting over their loss of power in politics, the economy and the military.

Aware of Sunni hard feelings and Kurdish desires for autonomy in an oil-rich section of north-eastern Iraq, Mr Obama urged Mr Maliki to be more flexible about sharing power and allowing provincial governments a greater role in decision-making.

"I reiterated my belief that Iraq will be more secure and more successful if there is a place for all Iraqi citizens to thrive, including all of Iraq's ethnic and religious groups," the president said.

Mr Maliki, contrary to past practice, said he shared Mr Obama's goal.

"Iraq has suffered a great deal from being marginalised, from the policies of sectarianism, and from wars. We will work very hard in order not to allow any sectarian behaviour an opportunity to flourish," he said.

Both leaders played down reports from Iraq that US forces, since pulling out of the cities, had not been given the flexibility prescribed by the Status of Forces Agreement to respond to attacks by remnants of al-Qaida in Iraq and Shiite militants.

Mr Obama said minor differences in "strategy" had arisen with Mr Maliki but declared that "the co-operation between US forces and Iraqi forces has remained high".

Mr Maliki said: "I believe what's happening is organising the roles between the two sides and co-operation. It is not to marginalise the role of any side."

In New York, Mr Maliki met United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon, then sat down with the five veto-holding permanent members of the UN Security Council to press for the lifting of all legally binding resolutions against his country stemming from Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Mr Obama said he restated his support for lifting UN sanctions, among them a requirement that Iraq to pay 5% of its oil revenues as reparations for the 1991 Gulf War.

However, he said disputes between Iraq and its neighbours must be resolved before changing its UN status.