Iraq's Maliki to meet Bush in New York

BAGHDAD, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki will meet U.S. President George W. Bush in New York this month on the sidelines of a meeting of the U.N. General Assembly, an Iraqi official said on Friday.

The talks will follow a slew of reports and testimony in Washington this week about Iraq, including an announcement by Bush on Thursday that he would start reducing the number of U.S. troops in Iraq.

Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh did not say specifically when Maliki would meet Bush, but he said the Iraqi leader would be heading to New York around Sept. 21.

He said the two leaders -- who met last week when Bush made a surprise trip to Iraq -- would hold a "general evaluation" about the situation in Iraq.

Maliki would also make a speech to the annual U.N. General Assembly meeting about national reconciliation and security in Iraq, Dabbagh told Reuters.

Bush told Americans in a televised address on Thursday evening that U.S. forces could be cut by about 20,000 by July and he linked the reduction to what he said was progress on the ground, especially in volatile Anbar province and in Baghdad.

But a White House report on Friday showed Iraqi leaders had performed satisfactorily on only half of their key goals.

The assessment concluded satisfactory progress on only nine of 18 political, security and economic benchmarks that the U.S. Congress had set for the Iraqi government under a buildup of American forces that started earlier this year.

Iraqi leaders including Maliki insist they are working to meet benchmarks and reconcile majority Shi'ite and minority Sunni Arabs, but say solutions will take time given the complexity of the issues and the depth of resentment.

The Shi'ite-led government had earlier welcomed testimony to the U.S. Congress on Monday by the U.S. commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, who recommended the gradual troop reductions that Bush endorsed on Thursday.