Obama to hold White House talks with Iraqi PM

US President Barack Obama will meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki at the White House on December 12, just days before all US troops are due out of Iraq, a US official said Friday.The two leaders will hold talks on deepening the comprehensive strategic partnership between the United States and Iraq, White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement.The president honors the sacrifices and achievements of all those who have served in Iraq, and of the Iraqi people, to reach this moment full of promise for an enduring US-Iraq friendship, he added.Obama said on October 21 that all American troops will leave Iraq by the end of the year, ending the long war which followed the 2003 invasion ordered by his predecessor, then president George W. Bush.Under a 2008 security pact, the United States must pull out all troops by the end of the year. But negotiations for a possibly smaller post-2011 force of a few thousand faltered over the question of legal immunity for US soldiers.A US general said Thursday the vast majority of remaining US troops in Iraq would be out by mid-December as the withdrawal picks up pace.Less than 34,000 troops remain in Iraq after reaching a peak of 170,000 in 2007 during a buildup ordered by Bush, said Major General Thomas Spoehr, deputy commanding general for the US force in Iraq.As I look at the plan, I think its clear to me that by the time we get to about mid-December or so, the vast majority of the US forces in Iraq -- we plan to have them withdrawn from Iraq by that time, he said via video link from Baghdad.