McCain visit will assess success of troop surge

Baghdad: US Republican presidential candidate John McCain arrived in Iraq on Sunday to assess the success of a US troop build-up that he has strongly backed, part of a week-long trip to the Middle East and Europe.

He is scheduled to meet Iraqi leaders and US military officials, said US embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo. He is visiting as a member of a fact-finding mission for the US Senate Armed Services Committee.

McCain, who will be the Republican choice in Nov-ember's presidential election, and Senate allies Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham will also visit Israel, Britain and France.

Analysts see the trip as a chance for McCain to show off his knowledge of foreign policy and military affairs while Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama fight out a bitter Democratic nomination process at home.

While acknowledging that leaders like British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy might see the trip as a chance to size him up as a potential president, McCain has said he is not travelling as a candidate.

The visit is his eighth to Iraq since US-led forces invaded Iraq in March 2003.

McCain, a former Navy pilot and Vietnam War hero, supported going to war but was a vocal critic of how the war was conducted until an extra 30,000 troops were deployed last year.