Obama says Iraq entering critical phase

By Matt Spetalnick

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama pushed Iraq's feuding factions to compromise on Tuesday, sounding a note of impatience as he said Iraqis should take responsibility for their country so U.S. troops could leave.

Obama, whose troop withdrawal strategy assumes Iraq staying relatively stable over the next 18 months, voiced concern that elections late this year could bring unresolved political issues "to a head" in a country that is only slowly emerging from years of sectarian violence in which tens of thousands died.

He flew to Baghdad on a previously unannounced trip to meet U.S. military commanders and Iraqi leaders and assess security there first-hand.

The strategy Obama announced after taking office in January aims to wind down the six-year war launched by his predecessor George W. Bush, seeking to withdraw all U.S. combat troops by the end of August 2010 and other forces by the end of 2011.

"It is time for us to transition to the Iraqis. They need to take responsibility for their country ... In order to do that they need to make political accommodations," Obama told some 1,500 cheering troops at the sprawling Camp Victory U.S. base military just outside Baghdad.

Iraq experts worry that recent security gains could unravel if Iraqi factions fail to compromise on issues such as sharing oil revenues more equitably and giving Sunni Arabs, who formed the backbone of an insurgency, greater say in political life.

The Shi'ite-led government, which includes minority Kurds and Sunni Arabs, has made some reforms but often failed to reach agreement on the political issues that really matter.

Iraqi officials said both sides agreed in their meetings with Obama that recent security gains needed to be matched by progress in political accommodations.