Bush, Maliki agree on 'aspirational goals'

TUCSON, July 18 (UPI) -- U.S. President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki agreed to a "time horizon" for a change in the U.S. mission in Iraq, the White House said Friday.

The announcement came as Bush traveled to Arizona for a Republican fundraiser, The Washington Post reported. Officials said that Maliki and Bush talked Thursday in a video conference.

Iraq and the United States have been negotiating a new status of forces agreement. While the Bush administration had resisted any notion of timetables for the withdrawal of troops, Maliki had begun saying that a schedule must be part of a new agreement.

"In the area of security cooperation, the president and the prime minister agreed that improving conditions should allow for the agreements now under negotiation to include a general time horizon for meeting aspirational goals," officials said in Friday's statement.

Scott Stanzel, a Bush spokesman, said that the agreement with Maliki is different from Democratic proposals on troop withdrawal.

"These are aspirational goals, not arbitrary timetables based on political expediency," Stanzel said.