Late Friday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki urged Iraqis in Syria to return home.

CNN: Ban: Syrian regime 'failed to protect civilians'

Annan went to Baghdad later Tuesday for talks on Syria with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

CNN: Annan: Iran has 'role to play' for Syrian peace

Saturday's voting also was seen as a referendum on the popularity of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

CNN: Peace, high turnout reported at Iraq polls

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki made the announcement Sunday after meeting with British Defense Secretary John Hutton.

CNN: Britain, Iraq to begin negotiations on troop presence

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was on a journey of his own, meeting with Iranian leaders in Tehran.

CNN: Pilgrims walk across Baghdad amid tight security

Rival alliances led by the prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, and by Iyad Allawi, a more secular predecessor, scored well.

ECONOMIST: Politics this week

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government has approved the pact and sent it to the Council of Representatives for ratification.

CNN: Iraq raid kills suspect in kidnap-slaying of GI

Some demonstrators Sunday called for al-Multaq, who is Sunni, to submit his resignation to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government.

CNN: Clashes erupt at Iraqi protest as sectarian tensions flare

The government of the prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, depends on a feeble coalition.

ECONOMIST: Iraqi oil: Lots of black stuff | The

He blamed the prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, denouncing the trial as politically motivated.

ECONOMIST: Politics this week | The

The renewed violence is a severe blow for Iraq's prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, who is seeking re-election in January 2010.

ECONOMIST: Bombs in Iraq

These events include a two-day trip to the woodshed in Amman, Jordan with President Bush for Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: The new groupthink

The powerful political movement boycotted Iraq's government for two months after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki met with President Bush in November.

CNN: Al-Sadr orders his bloc's ministers to quit government

Iran, which has close ties to the Shiite parties controlling Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government, has repeatedly denied the allegations.

CNN: Officials: Hezbollah agent played deaf before confessing

The renewed violence is a blow for the prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki.

ECONOMIST: Security in Iraq

It was also poised to renominate the incumbent prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki.

ECONOMIST: But a painful labour is still ahead

First, the government of Nuri al-Maliki seems incapable of conciliating the Sunnis.

ECONOMIST: Iraq

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki did not attend the execution, according to an adviser to the prime minister who was interviewed on state television.

CNN: Hussein executed with 'fear in his face'

The Kurds are increasingly at odds with the Shiite government led by Nuri al-Maliki in Baghdad, and so is Turkey, according to Cagaptay.

CNN: Kurds' ambitions add explosive element to Syria equation

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki asked for the handover of some of those ex-officials during a visit to Damascus last week, Iraqi officials said.

CNN: Iraq says ex-Baathist confesses to Finance Ministry attack

Zakaria points out that the United States has had equally serious questions about Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in Iraq but didn't publicly rebuke him.

CNN: U.S. should grow up and work with Karzai

Both sides signed the agreement Monday, which was reached in principle on Saturday, fine-tuned on Sunday, and then approved by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

CNN: Iraqi government, al-Sadr group sign cease-fire

Aides said that included Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and President Jalal Talabani as well as Iraq's vice presidents and other key political leaders.

CNN: Cheney: Five years in Iraq a 'successful endeavor'

But Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan have publicly traded insults several times this year as relations have soured.

MSN: Iraq stops registering Turkish firms amid row over Hashemi

But the president stepped on his own message a bit the day before this speech when he backed away from Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

CNN: 'Setting Expectations Tour' is Bush's segue into September

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki appeared to back Obama's call for a 16-month timetable in an interview with German magazine Der Spiegel over the weekend.

CNN: Lieberman: Obama choosing to lose Iraq war

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki congratulated the Kurdish people on their elections in a speech delivered in Washington and broadcast on Iraq's state TV.

CNN: Iraqi Kurds head to the polls

Crocker will also argue that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is making more of an effort to work with Iraq's various factions and political parties, they said.

CNN: Officials: Petraeus unlikely to recommend troop cuts

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was personally overseeing operations in the southern city against what government officials called "rogue" or "outlaw" militia elements, most loyal to al-Sadr.

CNN: Analysis: Iraqis' Basra fight not going well

Moreover, Iraq's prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, has already begun to play off the Kurds against each other, diminishing their influence in the central government in Baghdad.

ECONOMIST: Iraq��s Kurdish election