London - Barack Obama's "astonishing victory" in the US presidential elections will mean that Washington and Baghdad would work together as partners to bring stability to Iraq and the entire region, Iraq's foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari said Wednesday.

In his encounters with Iraqi leaders during the US election campaign Obama had been "very fair" on the issue of troop withdrawal, Zebari said in a BBC interview.

While he (Obama) had proposed a troop withdrawal over a period of 16 months, he had also privately reassured Iraqi leaders that he would not take "any drastic or dramatic decisions," said Zebari.

The timeline currently being negotiated for a phased withdrawal was 2011, said Zebari, adding that there was "not much difference" between the US and Iraqi positions over the issue.

"Our positions have become much closer," said the foreign minister. (dpa)