Baghdad, Iraq ? The American ambassador and Iraqi prime minister issued a rare joint statement Friday in which Iraq reaffirmed its commitment to a “good and strong” relationship with the U.S. – a bid to dampen speculation about souring ties less than two weeks before U.S. midterm elections.

The U.S. military announced a soldier died in dangerous Diyala province just northeast of Baghdad, raising to 97 the number of American forces killed in October – the fourth-highest monthly toll since the war began in March 2003.

The mounting U.S. death toll and raging sectarian violence are believed to be driving voters into the Democratic camp before the Nov. 7 congressional elections, and the Bush administration has sought ways to adjust its policies in Iraq.

The joint statement followed a tense week in U.S.-Iraqi relations, as Washington has stepped up pressure on Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to crack down on Shiite militias and death squads behind a wave of sectarian killings. Al-Maliki, whose political standing is beholden to the two main militias, repeatedly has said he would disband “illegal armed groups” but so far has taken little action.

On Tuesday, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad announced the centerpiece of the Bush administration’s new strategy: the establishment of a timeline to curb violence and solve other Iraqi problems. He said al-Maliki had agreed to the plan.

But during the next two days, al-Maliki publicly and heatedly declared that he saw imposition of timelines as an infringement on Iraqi sovereignty. Then he declared that the timeline program was a product of U.S. electoral politics.

U.S. soldiers greet a young Iraqi boy in central Baghdad's Karradah district. U.S. and Iraqi forces continued searching for a missing U.S. officer of Iraqi descent Friday in the area.

The White House on Thursday claimed al-Maliki’s comments were taken out of context. But hours later, the Iraqi leader reissued the same complaint, unambiguously in an interview with British journalists.

Friday’s joint statement was issued in English on U.S. embassy letterhead and in Arabic by the prime minister’s office after Khalilzad and al-Maliki had an unannounced meeting earlier in the day.

Baghdad has been awash with speculation that the Bush administration was preparing to dump al-Maliki, who was the compromise candidate for prime minister among the dominant Shiite Muslims in parliament. His government has been in power five months.

In an apparent bid to squelch such talk, the statement said: “The United States will continue to stand by the Iraqi government.”