By Matt Spetalnick
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush made a farewell visit to Baghdad on Sunday, flying in secret out of Washington to declare that while great strides have been taken towards peace, "the war is not over."
Just weeks before he bequeaths the unpopular Iraq war to President-elect Barack Obama, Bush sought to show improved security after five years of sectarian bloodshed by landing in daylight and venturing out beyond the city's heavily fortified international Green Zone.
In a sign of lingering anger over the war that will define the Republican president's foreign policy legacy, an Iraqi journalist shouted "this is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog," and hurled his shoes at Bush during a news conference with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
Throwing shoes at somebody is a supreme insult in the Middle East. One of the shoes sailed over the president's head and slammed into the wall behind him and he had to duck to miss the other one. Maliki tried to block the second shoe with his arm.
"It's like going to a political rally and have people yell at you. It's a way for people to draw attention," Bush said. "I don't know what the guy's cause was. I didn't feel the least bit threatened by it."
The journalist was leapt on by Iraqi security officials and U.S. secret service agents and dragged from the room screaming and struggling.
Bush's fleeting visit to Baghdad was aimed at marking the recent passage of a U.S.-Iraq security pact that paves the way for U.S. troops to pull out of Iraqi cities by July next year and withdraw completely by the end of 2011.
It was also meant to hail a recent sharp fall in the sectar-ian violence and insurgency that raged after the 2003 U.S. invasion to topple Saddam Hussein, and to show support for Iraqi police and soldiers as they take on increasing responsibility.
Asked whether he had come to Iraq on a victory lap, Bush said: "No, I consider it an important step on the road towards an Iraq that can sustain itself, govern itself and defend itself."
"There's still more work to be done. The war is not over."
PRAISE FOR BUSH
Bush held talks with President Jalal Talabani and Maliki at the presidential palace.
Later, he thanked U.S. forces for their service in Iraq at a rally of about 1,500 cheering troops inside Saddam's old al-Faw palace at the sprawling U.S. military base of Camp Victory.
Talabani called Bush a great friend of the Iraqi people "who helped us to liberate our country."
Maliki, who had a strained look on his face after the shoe-throwing, praised Bush: "You have stood by Iraq and the Iraqi people for a very long time, starting with getting rid of the dictatorship."
The U.S.-Iraq security pact, which replaces a U.N. mandate governing the presence of foreign troops, has its critics in Iraq, some of whom doubt the United States will live up to its promise to withdraw.
"We reject this visit, as it occurs at a time when Iraq is still under the U.S. occupation and the U.S. army has the upper hand in controlling the security situation," said Ahmed al-Massoudi, a spokesman for the parliamentary bloc loyal to anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
"This visit is a show of force."
Though Iraq has slipped down the list of Americans' concerns as the recession-hit U.S. economy has taken centre stage, polls show most people think the war was a mistake.
It will now be left to Obama, a Democrat and early opponent of U.S. military involvement in Iraq, to sort out an exit strategy after he takes office on January 20.
About 140,000 U.S. troops will still be in Iraq nearly six years into a war that has killed more than 4,200 American military personnel and tens of thousands of Iraqis.
LANDING IN DAYLIGHT
Bush was greeted on the heavily guarded tarmac in Baghdad by the top U.S. commander in Iraq, General Ray Odierno, and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker.
The decision to land in broad daylight reflected confidence that Baghdad was more secure this time than in Bush's last visit to the capital in 2006 when sectarian violence was raging.
Until Air Force One touched down, Bush's trip was conducted in strictest secrecy. The presidential jet was rolled out of its giant hangar only after everyone was on board. Journalists' electronic devices, from cellphones to iPods, were confiscated.
Bush, dressed casually and wearing a black baseball cap after his night-time getaway from the White House, made a rare appearance in the press cabin just before takeoff.
"Nobody knew who I was," he joked when an aide complimented him on his disguise.
(Additional reporting by Ahmed Rasheed and Waleed Ibrahim; Writing by Michael Christie; Editing by Sophie Hares/Keith Weir)
