WASHINGTON (AFP) — US President George W. Bush assured visiting Iraqi President Jalal Talabani on Wednesday that he wants a planned long-term US-Iraq security agreement that "suits the Iraqi government."
"We talked about a strategic framework agreement that suits the Iraqi government," Bush said of the deal, which would set the rules for the US military presence in Iraq after their UN mandate expires late this year.
"We continue our struggle to our efforts to reach, inshallah, very soon this agreement," Talabani said in English as they met in the Oval Office, using the Arabic for "God willing."
US and Iraqi officials with knowledge of the closed-door negotiations said they hope to forge the controversial deal by late July, though the talks have only edged forward over the past several weeks with some compromises.
Key areas of dispute have included the question of US troops' standing under Iraqi law, and whether they could be brought before Iraqi courts, as well as plans for long-term US military bases, freedom to conduct operations, and to arrest and detain Iraqis.
On the US home front, some Democratic foes of the vastly unpopular war have assailed Bush's decision to not seek Congressional approval for the deal and charged he seeks to tie the hands of whoever his successor is in January 2009.
The US president and his potential White House heir, Senator John McCain, have pointed to a drop in violence in Iraq and efforts to pass some laws seen as critical to national reconciliation there as key signs of progress.
"I complimented the president on the progress that the government has made," said Bush, whose record unpopularity partly stems from the war. "There's still a lot of work to be done. We recognize that."
"I agree with him that we are going to work together for having this strategic agreement between United States and Iraq, and also to continue our cooperation in our struggle against terrorism and for promotion of democracy in Iraq and in Middle East," said Talabani.
The Iraqi leader predicted that "we can pass this year two important laws" on sharing oil revenues and holding local elections, and promised that the Baghdad government would soon bring in more minority Sunni representatives.
Talabani also said that Iraq had posted significant security gains "against terrorism and against militias who were making troubles for Iraq and threatening civil war."
"Yes, some places it's still there are some groups who remain here and there," but "a big part of Iraq is stable and is secured," he said.
Talabani also trumpeted Iraq's improved relations with Turkey, Egypt, Jordan and Kuwait, and normalized diplomatic ties with Iran and Syria.
"There is, I think, no more any kind of isolation of our government," he said.
Over the past year, Washington has stepped up pressure on its Arab allies to reopen embassies in Baghdad and send high-level delegations on diplomatic and economic business in the Iraqi capital, seeking to anchor the war-battered country in the Sunni Arab world as a counterweight to Shiite Iran.
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