Bush not distracted by Obama's Iraq trip

By Matt Spetalnick

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Tuesday that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's high-profile visit to Iraq may have been a "distraction for many" but not for President George W. Bush.

The Bush administration sought to play down the significance of Obama's trip after he ended it reaffirming that if elected he would withdraw U.S. troops in 16 months, something the White House opposes as an "arbitrary" timetable.

Obama's travels abroad appeared aimed at burnishing the first-term Illinois senator's foreign policy credentials and casting him in a more presidential light in the November election battle against Bush's fellow Republican, John McCain.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told Obama and other U.S. lawmakers travelling with him on Monday he hoped U.S. combat troops could be out of Iraq in 2010, a goal not far from Obama's own pledge on withdrawals.

But White House spokeswoman Dana Perino denied any major differences between Bush and Maliki on the issue, saying they agree that any troop drawdown would depend on security gains.

Obama's visit followed an agreement by Bush and Maliki last week to set a "time horizon" for reducing U.S. forces, the closest the president has come to acknowledging the need for a pullout time frame in the unpopular war.

"Although this trip of his might be a distraction for many, and may be a welcome one for the media, it's not one for President Bush," Perino told reporters, in a rare departure from a policy of avoiding direct comment on Obama's campaign.

She insisted that Obama's Iraq visit would not complicate Bush's efforts to reach a long-term security deal with Maliki.

"We're not going to let this trip be a distraction," Perino told reporters after Obama held a news conference in Amman broadcast live on 24-hour cable news networks as he continued his tour of the region.

Obama, who would be America's first black president, has made his opposition to the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq a centrepiece of his campaign.

He said a phased troop drawdown would enable more troops to be deployed in Afghanistan. A troop buildup in Iraq ordered by Bush has helped bring violence there to a four-year low.

Obama acknowledged that in a meeting with him the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, had expressed opposition to a withdrawal timetable. But Obama said as president he would have to look at the broader picture.

(Editing by David Alexander and David Wiessler)