Obama Acknowledges 'Differences in Strategy' Between Iraqi, U.S. Forces

President Obama said Wednesday that he's "encouraged" by the progress in Iraq but conceded there are "differences in strategy" between the U.S. military and the Iraqi security forces who are taking over responsibility for protecting the country.

The president spoke alongside Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki after holding a one-on-one meeting at the White House.

Amid concerns that Iraqi forces are endangering their country's security by restricting the input and actions of U.S. allies, Obama suggested that sometimes U.S. forces would know best the most effective strategies and said the two countries would "make adjustments where necessary" going forward.

"What we've seen is that there are going to be, at times, differences in strategy," Obama said. As an example, he said that while Iraqi forces might want to set up more checkpoints, U.S. forces would know from experience that such stationary checkpoints can be easy targets for Al Qaeda in Iraq.

"There are going to be those kinds of strategic and tactical discussions that are continuing to take place between the two sides, but overall we have been very encouraged by the progress that has been made," he said.

Under the Status of Forces between Iraq and the United States, American troops pulled out of major Iraqi cities on June 30. Some ranking members of the U.S. military, though, had complained that the Iraqi army has shown little willingness to cooperate with American forces when swift counterinsurgency action is necessary and allowed under the agreement.

Obama also said Wednesday he is committed to working with Iraq to get the U.N. to lift international sanctions that the world body imposed on the country after the 1991 Gulf War. Obama said it would be a "mistake" for Iraq to continue to be burdened by the sins of a deposed dictator.

The sanctions were imposed during the time of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. They still require Iraq to pay 5 percent of its oil revenues as war reparations.

Obama, saying the United States is on schedule to remove all troops by the end of 2011, said  Iraqis are in the middle of a "full transition" toward taking responsibility for their own security.

But concerns over the slow pace of political, religious and ethnic reconciliation in Iraq were expected to dominate the meeting between the two leaders.

Afterward, both Obama and al-Maliki promoted efforts afoot to forge unity among the factions in the country.

"We will work on a national plan where all sons of Iraq and all daughters of Iraq are equal," al-Maliki said. "We will strengthen the relationship between the people of Iraq."

Obama said the future of Iraq belongs to those who "build," and not those who "destroy."

"Now we're in the midst of a full transition to Iraqi responsibility," Obama said. "The bonds forged between Americans and Iraqis in war can pave the way for progress that can be forged in peace."

With insurgent bombings and attacks still a major danger as Iraqi forces assume a larger police role there, Pentagon officials have voiced pessimism about any decrease in violence unless al-Maliki and his Shiite Muslim political allies become more flexible about sharing power with minority Sunnis and easing government control over Sunni regions and those dominated by ethnic Kurds.

Al-Maliki has emerged as a political force from Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority and he has been unable or unwilling to forge the kind of political power-sharing and economic compromises that the U.S. sees as necessary for long-term stability.

Al-Maliki met U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for a half-hour Wednesday morning at U.N. headquarters in New York and then sat down with the five veto-wielding permanent members of the U.N. Security Council to press for the lifting of all legally-binding resolutions against his country stemming from Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

The American invasion of Iraq to overthrow Saddam in 2003 ended minority Sunni Muslim rule in Iraq. The country's Shiites now hold all the levers of power and have shown little willingness to accommodate either the Sunnis or the Kurds in northeast Iraq.

A symptom of the political gridlock shows in the government's inability, after years of trying, to find an equitable method for sharing Iraq's vast oil wealth. Known reserves lie primarily in Shiite- and Kurdish-controlled regions.

There are about 130,000 members of the U.S. military in the country, down by more than 30,000 since a peak reached in 2007 during the troop buildup ordered by President George W. Bush. That temporary rise in forces vastly reduced the sectarian violence that had racked the country.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.