President Bush meets at the White House with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani Tuesday as both leaders prepare to address the United Nations on Iraq's future and other issues.
The talks come on the eve of the opening of the U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York. Officials say the two men are likely to discuss Iraq's draft constitution and efforts to get Iraq's Sunni Arabs to support the document in a national referendum set for next month.
Earlier, Mr. Talabani told the Washington Post that the United States could withdraw up to 50-thousand troops from Iraq by the end of the year, because there were enough trained Iraqi forces ready to begin taking control of parts of the country.
But an advisor to Mr. Talabani later called the newspaper to clarify that the Iraqi leader was not suggesting a specific timetable for withdrawal.
Meanwhile, Turkish authorities say insurgents in Iraq have released three Turkish engineers kidnapped two months ago.
Information for this report is provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
