Barack Obama made his first presidential visit to Iraq yesterday with a surprise flight to Baghdad, where he urged Iraqis to take responsibility for their nation as thousands of American forces prepared to leave and hand over control.

His arrival came as General Ray Odierno, the top American commander in Iraq, hinted that combat forces might have to stay longer than a June 30 deadline in two particularly volatile cities because of continued violence.

The trip, shrouded in secrecy until the President was airborne, followed a five-nation tour of Europe and Turkey. Mr Obama swiftly hailed the “extraordinary achievement” of US troops in a war that he says should never have been fought and now promises to end. Hours earlier, in a grim reminder of the difficult task that he faces leaving Iraq a secure country, a car bomb exploded in Baghdad, killing nine and wounding 20.

“This is going to be a critical period, these next 18 months,” the President told a crowd of 600 excited US troops at a sprawling military base adjacent to the airport, adding that a stable Iraq that was not a safe haven for terrorists meant that “we can start bringing our folks home”. One soldier shouted: “I love you.” The Commander-in-Chief responded: “I love you back.”

Mr Obama, who also received a briefing from General Odierno, praised the military for giving Iraq the opportunity to stand on its own as a democratic country. “Under enormous strain and under enormous sacrifice, through controversy and difficulty and politics, you’ve kept your eyes focused on just doing your job,” he said. “It is time for us to transition to the Iraqis. They need to take responsibility for their country.”

Under an agreement between Washington and Baghdad, American combat forces are due to pull out of Iraqi cities to bases on the outskirts by the end of June. Mr Obama also wants to withdraw most US combat troops completely by August 2010, beginning slowly to help to maintain stability in Iraq before a general election due by the end of the year or early next.

The exit will accelerate after the polls, causing troop numbers to fall from 140,000 to about 50,000 next year. Any exit, however, will be subject to conditions on the ground as neither Iraqi leaders nor US commanders want to create a vacuum for militant elements to exploit.

General Odierno told The Times before meeting Mr Obama that he felt confident about pulling his troops out on time from Iraqi cities, apart from Mosul in the north and Baquba to the northeast. Both cities still harbour al-Qaeda fighters and remain volatile. “Are the Iraqis really ready to resume complete responsibility inside Mosul?” he asked. Expressing similar concern about Baquba, he added: “We will conduct assessments when the time is right.”

A decision to extend the combat presence, however, would need to be sanctioned by Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister. Mr Obama assured him yesterday that he planned to stick to his departure timetable despite a recent rise in violence. On Monday at least 37 people died in a string of co-ordinated car bombings blamed on al-Qaeda. Another 140 people were wounded.

In a curious change of schedule, plans for Mr Obama to visit the fortified green zone in the centre of Baghdad to meet the Prime Minister were scrapped because of weather. A sandstorm meant that flying by helicopter was too risky but it was unclear why Mr Obama could not make the journey by road — something officials usually do when air transport is cancelled. Instead, Mr al-Maliki drove to Camp Victory for the meeting, limiting Mr Obama’s exposure to the risk of being caught up in another car bomb. After the talks, the President said he had told Mr al-Maliki that the United States had “no claim on Iraqi territory and resources”.

He added: “The drawdown will ultimately result in the removal of all US troops by 2011.”

Earlier, in an exchange with students in Istanbul, Mr Obama said: “I have a responsibility to make sure that as we bring troops out, that we do so in a careful enough way that we don’t see a complete collapse into violence.”

Such a commitment has ensured that Mr Obama is far more popular in Iraq than his predecessor, George W. Bush, whose final visit to Baghdad will be marked for ever by the image of an angry Iraqi journalist throwing his shoes at him.

Ali al-Dilemi, 37, a communications engineer, urged the new President to stick to his exit plan and applauded him for having a much better understanding of Arabs than Mr Bush.

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