(NECN/APTV) - US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made a surprise one-day visit to Baghdad on Sunday for a meeting with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Al-Maliki asked his US visitor to shield Iraq from the demands for reparations from neighboring countries dating back to the actions by Iraq's previous ruler, Saddam Hussein, according to an Iraqi spokesman.
Kuwait still claims (b) billions of US dollars in war reparations from Iraq dating from the 1990 invasion and has refused appeals by Baghdad to reduce its demands and forgive about 15 (b) billion US dollars in debt.
In the past, Pelosi pushed the Iraqi government to make greater efforts at political reconciliation.
The House speaker on Sunday also met Iraq's parliament speaker, Ayad al-Samarraie.
At a joint news conference, she said the US wanted to continue to help Iraq economically and culturally under the strategic framework agreement. "All of this struggle will be worth it in the end because it will be done for the people of Iraq," she said.
A fierce critic of the US-led Iraq war, Pelosi originally opposed the 2007 increase in US troops credited with contributing to a substantial reduction of violence in much of country in the past two years.
She has praised President Barack Obama's plans to bring home two-thirds of the 130-thousand American troops in Iraq by August 2010.
Pelosi last visited Iraq in May 2008, when she also met with al-Maliki and in January 2007, shortly after Democrats took control of Congress.
The following story and video is from APTV.