Obama, Maliki stress stability, progress

WASHINGTON, July 22 (UPI) -- President Obama said Wednesday U.S. combat troops would pull out of Iraq by August 2011, which he called "critically important" to his administration.

"I have no doubt that there will be some tough days ahead," Obama said at a joint White House news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki after the two leaders met privately.

Obama said American troops and Iraqi security forces would be attacked, terrorists would target civilians and some would seek to foment sectarian conflict.

"But make no mistake: Those efforts will fail," he said. "The Iraqi people have already rejected these forces of division and destruction. … The future does not belong to those who would destroy; it belongs to those who would build."

Obama said the United States also was seeking to have the United Nations lift sanctions imposed while Saddam Hussein was in power.

Maliki called his meeting with Obama "positive and constructive" and said it focused, in part, on ways to "activate the strategic relationship on the economic front, cultural front, educational front (and) commercial front" to help Iraq build a strong constitutional government.

He said Iraqi forces had benefited from working with American and multinational troops.

"Our forces became highly capable and they will continue to do their role and their part to provide the opportunity needed for reconstruction, rebuilding, and developing Iraq," Maliki said.

He also pledged to continue fighting terrorists.

"If they succeeded in their efforts," he said, "they would not have been killing only Iraq but the entire region through the danger of sectarianism."