White House: U.S.-Iraqi ties 'new chapter'

President Barack Obama and Iraq's prime minister will discuss "a new chapter" in relations Monday as U.S. troops prepare to leave Iraq, the White House said.Obama and Nouri al-Maliki were to meet in the Oval Office at 10:15 a.m. EST, the White House said Sunday evening."The two leaders will hold talks on the removal of U.S. military forces from Iraq, and our efforts to start a new chapter in the comprehensive strategic partnership between the United States and Iraq," White House spokesman Jay Carney said Friday.The meeting will be followed by an 11:35 a.m. joint news conference, the White House said.Obama -- who ran for office in 2008 promising to wind down the war in Iraq -- will also tout the war's close in local TV interviews Tuesday and in remarks to troops at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, N.C., Wednesday, the White House said. Obama plans to travel to Fort Bragg with first lady Michelle Obama."As we definitively end America's war in Iraq this month, the president wanted to speak directly to the troops at Fort Bragg and to members of the armed forces and their families everywhere," Carney said.Obama plans to address "the enormous sacrifices and achievements of the brave Americans who served in the Iraq war, and he will speak about the extraordinary milestone of bringing the war in Iraq to an end," Carney said.Fort Bragg -- home of the U.S. Army Airborne forces and Special Forces, also known as the Green Berets because of their distinctive service headgear, as well as U.S. Army Forces Command and U.S. Army Reserve Command -- is one of the U.S. military installations whose members and families "have provided remarkable service to our country through their deployments to Iraq," Carney said.Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney told the Republican Jewish Coalition in Washington Wednesday the troop withdrawals were "based upon electoral expediency, not military requirement."An Oct. 29-30 Gallup phone poll of 992 adults indicates 75 percent of Americans support pulling troops out of Iraq. When broken down by party, 96 percent of Democrats said they supported the withdrawal, as did 77 percent of independents and 43 percent of Republicans.The poll's maximum margin of sampling error is 4 percentage points, Gallup said.A majority of Iraqis also support the move, pollsters say.Obama said Oct. 21 U.S. troops would be out of Iraq by the end of the year, ending a nearly nine-year military engagement that cost the lives of 4,400 troops and more than $1 trillion.About 150 Defense Department military and civilian personnel are to remain in Iraq to guard the U.S. Embassy, among other responsibilities. They will operate under the State Department, which will take the leading role in Iraq.The U.S. ended official combat operations in August 2010.Maliki indicated in November he was open to an eventual return of U.S. troops as trainers.Even as the military reduces its troop strength, the CIA will continue to have a major presence in the country, as will State Department security contractors, officials said.