U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama met U.S. military commanders and Iraq's prime minister on Monday to assess security in the country, where there are more than 140,000 American troops.
U.S. strategy in Iraq and troop levels are central issues in the November election race between the first-term senator from Illinois and Republican candidate John McCain.
Obama, who has called for the removal of U.S. combat troops within 16 months of taking office should he win the election, said he had a "very constructive discussion" with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Television pictures showed the two men smiling and shaking hands before they sat down for talks.
Maliki suggested earlier this month setting a timetable for U.S. troops to leave Iraq, where violence is at a four-year low, but has given no dates.
Obama has welcomed Maliki's suggestion but some Iraqis insist that the army and police cannot go it alone and that a premature withdrawal of U.S. troops could open the door to the sort of violence that nearly tore Iraq apart not so long ago.
On Sunday the Iraqi government denied Maliki told a German magazine in an interview that he backed Obama's plan to withdraw combat troops within 16 months. The government said Maliki's remarks to Der Spiegel were translated incorrectly.
Obama visited Afghanistan over the weekend, the other big foreign policy challenge the next president will face. He called the situation in Afghanistan "precarious and urgent" and said Washington should start planning to transfer more troops there from Iraq.
McCain has attacked Obama for not visiting Iraq recently to get a first-hand look at conditions.
The Republican candidate has been to Iraq eight times while Obama's only other trip was in January 2006, a month before militants blew up a revered Shi'ite shrine in Samarra in an attack that plunged Iraq into vicious sectarian fighting.
The U.S. embassy said Obama, who is visiting Iraq as part of a U.S. congressional delegation, had met the number two U.S. military commander in Iraq and a British general.
He is also expected to hold talks with General David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in the country.
