Middle East News
Report: Iraqi Prime Minister to visit US
Jul 5, 2009, 11:16 GMT
Baghdad - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki will visit the US in two weeks, Baghdad's official al-Iraqia television station reported Sunday.
The prime minister will meet with US President Barack Obama and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a visit scheduled to begin July 21, the report said.
US Vice President Joe Biden visited Iraq last week, following the scheduled withdrawal of US troops from Iraqi towns and cities.
As he left Baghdad for Britain on Saturday, Biden told reporters that he had reassured Iraqi officials that Iraq would be no less of a priority for the United States in future, and that his visit was proof of that.
'With your concerns with Afghanistan, Pakistan, Korea, we were concerned we were moved to the bottom shelf,' Biden quoted an Iraqi leader, whom he did not name, as saying during his visit.
'And so I said, 'Well, you're not and evidence of that is, as the vice president of the United States, I'm here talking to you.' And it was clear that they - it was like, yeah we get it,' Biden said, according to a pool report distributed Saturday.
Biden said his visit would be the first of many, and that Iraqi officials had asked for closer US-Iraqi cooperation on science business.
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