WASHINGTON -- US presidential hopeful Barack Obama said Monday that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has expressed his support for a pullout of US troops from Iraq by 2010, in a statement released by his senate office in Washington.

"The Prime Minister said that now is an appropriate time to start to plan for the reorganization of our troops in Iraq -- including their numbers and missions.

"He stated his hope that US combat forces could be out of Iraq in 2010," said Obama in a joint statement released with fellow senators Jack Reed and Chuck Hagel, during their stopover in Iraq during a tour of the Middle East and Europe.