President Barack Obama met Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki yesterday, marking America’s exit from a war launched to oust Saddam Hussein but which left a wounding legacy for both nations.

This is a momentous visit. The war is over and the troops are coming home

“This is a momentous visit,” said White House spokesman Jay Carney. “The war is over and the troops are coming home.”

Mr Obama held talks with Mr Maliki at the White House, as the last US troops of a garrison that once numbered nearly 170,000, prepared to leave this month, ending a nearly nine-year presence following the US invasion.

Mr Maliki and Mr Obama met in the Oval Office, and were later to hold a press conference before visiting Arlington National Cemetery where many of the nearly 4,500 US war dead lie buried.

Tens of thousands of Iraqis also died in a war, insurgency and sectarian violence that left Iraq with the stirrings of a democratic political system but facing territorial challenges from neighbour Iran.

The meeting will be an important full circle moment in Mr Obama’s presidency, as his initial opposition to an unpopular war as an unknown Illinois state lawmaker fuelled his then unlikely rise to the pinnacle of US power.

Since then though, Mr Obama has proved a steely commander-in-chief, escalating the Afghan war even as he pulled troops out of Iraq and intensified a ruthless US covert campaign against Al-Qaeda leaders and foot soldiers.

Mr Maliki met Mr Obama less than a month before the complete withdrawal of US troops from Iraq and more than eight years after the launch of the US-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.

Facing a re-election battle in November, Mr Obama is expected to stress he has kept his 2008 campaign promise to bring American troops home from Iraq and is now turning to nation building at home in tough economic times.

Mr Maliki will also see Vice President Joe Biden and lawmakers to discuss security, energy, education and justice.

The US and Iraqi leaders “will hold talks on the removal of US military forces from Iraq, and our efforts to start a new chapter in the comprehensive strategic partnership between the United States and Iraq,” the White House said.