Obama meets with al-Maliki

BAGHDAD, July 21 (UPI) -- Barack Obama met with Iraq's prime minister Monday and an Iraqi official indicated Obama's proposed U.S. troop pullout by 2010 was in an "appropriate" range.

Obama called his discussion with Nouri al-Maliki "very constructive," The Guardian reported. Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said after the meeting, "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."

But, al-Dabbagh said, Iraq may change its position if violence worsens following a troop draw-down.

Obama, the likely Democratic U.S. presidential nominee who is traveling overseas to improve his image in handling foreign affairs, told CBS Monday commanders in Afghanistan told him they could use two or three more brigades to stabilize the situation.

Obama said again troops should be redeployed from Iraq to Afghanistan to fight the Taliban and al-Qaida, which have re-emerged as threats to the struggling Afghan government.

The U.S. senator from Illinois met Monday with top U.S. military officials and said his opposition to the 2007 troop surge hasn't changed, but he told ABC News the U.S. military has helped bring about a reduction in violence in Iraq.

"I think it is indisputable that, because of great work that they have done, as well as the unbelievable work that the troops have done, we've made significant progress in terms of reducing violence in Iraq," he said.

Obama said the reduction in violence also resulted from "political factors inside Iraq."

Likely Republican nominee John McCain has said Obama proposes a pullout regardless of conditions in Iraq but Obama told ABC any pullout would have to take into account the advice of military commanders.

"What I will refuse to do is to get boxed in into what I consider two false choices," he said. "Either I have a rigid timeline, come hell or high water, and I am blind to anything that happens in the intervening 16 months, or, alternatively, I am completely deferring to whatever the commanders on the ground say, which is what George Bush says he's doing, in which case I'm not doing my job as commander in chief. I'm essentially, simply rubber-stamping decisions that are made on the ground."