US President Bush said that he and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Thursday agreed that Iraq should not be partitioned into separate, semi-autonomous zones.
"The prime minster made clear that splitting his country into parts, as some have suggested is not what the Iraqi people want, and that any partition of Iraq would only lead to an increase in sectarian violence," Bush said after nearly two and a half hours aimed at stabilizing violence-wracked Iraq.
Bush also said the United States would keep forces in Iraq until the "job is complete". Bush conveyed the United States would maintain its military presence in Iraq as long as the Iraqi government requested it.
Bush also hailed the Iraqi premier as a "strong leader" and said joint talks had partly focused on increasing the training of Iraq's security forces.
