Obama says committed to Iraq withdrawal timetable

AMMAN (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said after a visit to Iraq on Tuesday that he was still committed to a 16-month timetable for a U.S. military withdrawal from the country.

"What I have proposed is a steady, deliberate draw down over the course of 16 months," he told reporters at a news conference in the Jordanian capital Amman.

Obama said mistrust between Iraqi leaders was holding back the progress of the country's political process.

"What became clear in our conversations is that there remains mistrust between Sunni tribal leaders as well as government officials in the Anbar region and the central government," he said after flying in to Amman from the once restive Sunni Muslim Anbar region of Iraq.

"Part of executing a lasting stability in Iraq remains reconciling those two groups. There has been a cessation of violence and ethnic strife but the suspicions are still there and to some degree the U.S. forces are seen as a more honest broker in resolving those differences," he said.

"What I emphasized is the fact that the U.S. government can't be there forever, the U.S. military cant be there forever. So it's going to be important for the parties themselves, the Iraqi people to make sure they are dealing with these underlying tensions and concerns," Obama added.

Obama is on a fact-finding trip and will also visit Israel.

(Reporting by Caren Bohan; Editing by Samia Nakhoul)