Talabani: Iraq of one voice on US pullout

Iraq's President Jalal al-Talabani says all the Iraqi political leaders unanimously agree that the United States has to take its troops out of his country by an agreed year-end deadline. - “There was unanimity amongst political leaders on the withdrawal,” the head of state said in Baghdad on Sunday, the Associated Press reported. He made the comments after meeting with the country's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as well as other senior Iraqi figures in the Iraqi capital. Around 47,000 US troops are currently stationed in Iraq. The forces should all leave the country's soil by the end of 2011 under the terms of a 2008-clinched bilateral security deal known as the Status of Forces Agreement.

Earlier in the year, however, Robert Gates, the former US secretary of defense, who was recently replaced by Leon Panetta, pled for the extension of the military presence. Also in August, the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mike Mullen, said that Washington would "keep some American troops in the country” at, what he called, Baghdad's potential request. Talabani said he expected that, during a next week meeting, Iraqi politicians agree whether some of the forces should remain for training purposes.