Biden in Baghdad to meet Maliki
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US Vice President Joe Biden was in Baghdad on Thursday for a first meeting with Nuri al-Maliki since the Iraqi prime minister began a second term and talks with other top officials, US officials said.
Mr Biden's unannounced tour of world hotspots had previously taken him to Kabul, where he met Afghan President Hamid Karzai, and to Islamabad, where he met with top Pakistani officials.
Mr Biden Thursday morning met with the top US commander in Iraq general Lloyd Austin and US ambassador James Jeffrey at the US embassy in Baghdad's highly-fortified 'Green Zone.
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Asked why he's in Iraq, Mr Biden said: "I'm here to help the Iraqis celebrate the progress they made. They formed a government. And that's a good thing. They have a long way to go."
Mr Biden arrived from Pakistan in the Iraqi capital on Wednesday night, according to journalists travelling with him.
The White House said Mr Biden would also meet President Jalal Talabani and Iyad Allawi, the shiite Muslim who heads the Iraqiya bloc and won the most votes in Iraq's elections in 2010.
The visit comes days after radical shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, a potent force in Iraqi politics, exhorted a boisterous crowd to resist the US "occupation" by all means in his first speech since returning home to the holy city of Najaf.
Mr Maliki was approved for a second term by Parliament on December 21 along with a national unity cabinet after over nine months of political deadlock.
Though combat operations have officially ended, some 50,000 US troops remain in the country.
American soldiers are allowed to return fire in self-defence and take part in operations if requested by their Iraqi counterparts under the terms of a bilateral security pact.
In Islamabad, Mr Biden delivered a bold message of support for key anti-terror ally Pakistan, telling the country that America is "not the enemy of Islam."
As Mr Biden wrapped up his visit, a suicide blast in the northwest town of Bannu killed 18 people, most of them security officers, and wounded 15 in an attack claimed by the Taliban as revenge for US missile strikes in the area.
Mr Biden said militancy in Pakistan was a threat to both countries, and he referred to the killing last week of Punjab governor Salman Taseer, who was shot dead by his bodyguard over his outspoken opposition to strict blasphemy laws.
The confessed killer has been hailed a hero by religious conservatives and rallies have been held across the country in his honour.
Before Pakistan, Mr Biden visited Kabul, where he met Mr Karzai for talks that included discussing the presence of US troops serving in Afghanistan as part of an international force of some 140,000.
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