Washington ? President Barack Obama, calling for a broader relationship between Iraq and the United States, acknowledged Wednesday that “differences in strategy” remain to be resolved, but said he was satisfied with developments in the war-torn nation.

Obama and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, in private meetings at the White House, also addressed the Obama administration’s desire to see speedier ethnic reconciliation inside Iraq and the Iraqi government’s appetite for accelerated new U.S. investment there.

One of al-Maliki’s chief goals on the U.S. trip was to persuade the United Nations to lift trade barriers that had been imposed on Iraq following Saddam Hussein’s invasion of neighboring Kuwait in 1990. While many of the sanctions have been lifted, some remain along with the Security Council’s determination that Iraq represents a threat to international peace. Obama backed al-Maliki’s quest.