Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama arrived in Iraq on Monday at a base in the southern city of Basra where he and Senators Jack Reid and Chuck Hagel met with local leaders and US commanders. This comes after his pledge to declare an end to the Iraq war from the first day of his presidency if he wins in November and to pull out US troops within 16 months.

Senator Obama discussed a series of matters with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, including the future of the U.S. military presence and the possibility of decreasing troop numbers.

This is Obama's second trip to Iraq after a similar Congressional fact-finding tour in January 2006.

Before arriving in Iraq, he had spent the night in Kuwait after a visit to Kabul, where he had talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in a meeting that lasted for nearly two hours. Obama said the United States, NATO and Afghanistan must increase their efforts to fight the Taliban and Al Qaeda and to encourage Pakistan in their struggle to annihilate terrorist training camps. The Presidential candidate also promised he would assign at least two more combat brigades to Afghanistan.

Obama's camp has said the purpose of his tour is to make an on-the-ground evaluation of the war in Iraq and to meet the country leaders, whom he has criticized for not doing enough to reshape their country.

Barrack Obama, 46, is on his first trip abroad since he has become the Democratic presidential nominee. He has scheduled stops in Jordan, Israel, Germany, France and Britain on a six-day tour meant to contradict criticism that he is a foreign-policy neophyte.