Focus on Mideast peace after Iraq withdrawal, US says (Roundup)

New York - The United States said Thursday that its planned military withdrawal from Iraq would give it 'flexibility' in Afghanistan and a chance to work out a comprehensive programme to bring peace to the Middle East. US Ambassador Susan Rice told the United Nations Security Council that Iraq and the US have agreed on a timetable to pull out the more than 150,000 US troops from Iraq. 'This carefully managed programme to ending the war in no way diminishes America's long-term support for a sovereign, stable, democratic and prosperous Iraq,' Rice told the council, which convened to discuss the situation in Iraq. 'We have signed a broad agreement that sets out long-term cooperation between the two countries, from education to trade, technology and to meet the challenges in energy in the 21st century,' she said. Since taking office in January, US President Barack Obama decided on a quicker pace of US withdrawal from Iraq and said those troops would be shifted to Afghanistan. Baghdad signed an agreement to terminate the presence of US armed forces in Iraq by 2011. The Obama administration reportedly wants to withdraw from that country sooner. The 15-nation council heard reports about the improved security situation in Iraq and the successful provincial elections held last month, which Iraq's UN Ambassador Hamid al-Bayati said was proof of democratic progress. Al-Bayati said an estimated 500,000 Iraqis were expected to return home this year because of the improved security situation. He said Iraq's Minister of Displacement and Migration Abduk Samad Rahman Sultan was recently in Syria and will visit Egypt and Lebanon to coordinate the return of Iraqis who fled when US troops invaded their country in March 2003 to topple dictator Saddam Hussein. Some 220,000 Iraqis returned home last year. Up to 2 million Iraqis have taken refuge in neighbouring countries, Europe and the United States since 2003. 'The acceleration of improvement in the security situation in Baghdad and other provinces has helped to return life to a normal pace in most areas,' al-Bayati said in an address to an open session of the council.