BAGHDAD, Dec 14: Outgoing US President George W. Bush said during a surprise farewell visit to Baghdad on Sunday that America’s involvement in Iraq had been difficult but necessary.

“The work hasn’t been easy but it’s been necessary for American security, Iraqi hope and world peace,” Bush said on his fourth visit to Iraq since he ordered the March 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein’s regime.

Bush’s trip comes about five weeks before he hands over the tricky task of overseeing the withdrawal from Iraq to his successor Barack Obama, who has pledged to turn the page on the deeply unpopular war.

“I’m so grateful that I’ve had a chance to come back to Iraq before my presidency ends,” he said at a meeting with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.

He has staunchly defended the invasion that toppled Saddam in April 2003 but triggered years of deadly insurgency and sectarian violence that has killed tens of thousands of Iraqis and more than 4,200 American troops.

Bush described the US-Iraq security accord that calls for the withdrawal of US troops by the end of 2011 a “reminder of our friendship and a way forward to help the Iraqis to realise the blessings of a free society”.

Talabani, a Kurd who fought Saddam’s regime, called Bush “a great friend for the Iraqi people, who helped us liberate our country” and said Iraq now had “democracy, human rights and prosperity”.

President Bush is also set to meet Talabani’s two vice presidents, parliament speaker Mahmud Mashhadani, the president of the northern Kurdish goverment Massud Barzani and Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, leader of Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, another powerful Shiite faction.

Mr Bush’s visit comes hot on the heels of a trip on Saturday by US Defence Secretary Robert Gates, who said that the US mission was in its “endgame”. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki are due to sign a ceremonial pact marking the adoption of the so-called Status of Forces Agreement approved by Iraq’s parliament in November after months of intense political wrangling.

The pact will govern the presence of 146,000 US troops stationed in more than 400 bases when their UN mandate expires at the end of the year, giving the Iraqi government veto power over virtually all of their operations.

Gates, who president-elect Obama has picked to stay on at the Pentagon when he moves into the White House, told US troops on Saturday: “We are in the process of the drawdown.” “We are, I believe, in terms of the American commitment, in the endgame here in Iraq.” In addition to the 2011 deadline for a full withdrawal, the pact also sets June 30 as the deadline for the pullout of combat forces from cities and villages.

But the top US commander in Iraq, General Raymond Odierno, who met with Gates, said on Saturday that troops would stay in Iraqi cities in a support and training role even after June.—AFP