US President George W. Bush will hold talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in Jordan next week focusing on improving Iraq's fragile security, the White House said last night.
Amid rising sectarian violence in Iraq, Mr Bush will fly to Amman following the Nato summit in Riga, Latvia for talks on November 29th and 30th with the Iraqi leader to focus on "building security and stability in Iraq," White House spokesman Tony Snow told reporters.
White House spokesman Tony Snow
"We will focus our discussions on current developments in Iraq, progress made to date in the deliberations of a high level joint committee on transferring security responsibility and the role of the region in supporting Iraq," Mr Snow said, reading from a joint US-Iraqi statement as Bush flew back to Washington from a trip to Asia.
The violence in Iraq has put mounting pressure on both Mr Bush and Mr Maliki to try to find a way to stem killings.
Discontent over Iraq was a top issue in US elections earlier this month that ousted Mr Bush's Republican Party from power in Congress in a sharp rebuke to the president.
Allies have been urging Mr Bush to talk about Iraq to his adversaries in Iran and Syria, but Washington has so far reacted warily to that idea.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani is due to visit Tehran this weekend for a summit with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
On a visit to Baghdad yesterday, Syria's foreign minister signed an accord restoring full diplomatic relations with Iraq following a 24-year rift.