U.S. President Barack Obama called his Iraqi counterpart Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Monday, the White House said.
　　"The president spoke with prime minister Maliki and President Talabani in Iraq this morning," White House spokesman Robert Gibbssaid, but gave no more details.
　　The conversation came one day after Iraq held its provincial elections, in which Iraqis would choose 444 parliamentary representatives and 14 governors out of Iraq's 18 provinces.
　　President Obama said on Saturday that he would watch closely the Iraqi provincial elections, and that the elections "mark another significant milestone in Iraq's democratic development."
　　Obama has underscored that the United States would end its "role in Iraq" as quickly as possible, and exit the battlefield "responsibly."