Obama meets Iraqi PM Maliki in Baghdad

Journalists board Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama's newly painted campaign plane at Midway Airport in Chicago July 20, 2008.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in Baghdad on Monday, witnesses and Iraq's state television said.

Obama, who earlier arrived in Iraq as part of a U.S. congressional delegation, has pledged to remove U.S. combat troops from Iraq within 16 months of taking office if he wins the November presidential race.

He has also welcomed a suggestion by Maliki that a timetable be set for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.