Washington: President Barack Obama called Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki to discuss US troop withdrawals and congratulate him on weekend provincial elections.
The elections took place with "little violence" and should mark an additional step toward Iraq assuming more responsibility for its future, Obama told Al Maliki, according to a White House statement late on Tuesday.
The president also reaffirmed that he would consult the government in Baghdad on the pullout of American forces.
Obama wants to deploy some of the 142,000 soldiers in Iraq to Afghanistan, where US and Nato-led forces are fighting Taliban insurgents.
The Bush administration and Iraq signed an agreement last year that calls for US troops to leave Iraqi cities by June this year and the country by the end of 2011.
Iraqis voted January 31 in largely peaceful elections in which 14,000 candidates vied for 440 seats in 14 of the country's 18 provincial councils.
Five candidates were assassinated in the run-up to the vote.
