Dec. 14 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush arrived in Iraq for his fourth visit to a nation transformed by the U.S.- led war he launched in 2003.

Bush is making the trip to celebrate new security agreements with Iraq, thank U.S. troops and meet with Iraqi leaders, the White House said as the president landed in Baghdad after a 10 1/2-hour flight.

“I’ve come to admire them for their courage and their determination to succeed,” Bush said during an appearance with Iraqi president Jalal Talabani and Iraqi regional leaders.

Bush’s surprise visit -- his last to Iraq as commander-in- chief -- came just three weeks after that country’s parliament approved an accord with the U.S. that provides for the withdrawal of American troops by the end of 2011.

The agreement calls for U.S. forces to pull back from Iraq’s towns and cities by the middle of 2009 and to leave the country three years from now.

President-elect Barack Obama has said one of his first acts as commander-in-chief would be to direct his military commanders to begin withdrawing troops “as quickly as we can” while maintaining stability in Iraq, ensuring the safety of U.S. troops and preventing a resurgence of terrorism.

Bush left Washington aboard Air Force One at about 9 p.m. Eastern time Saturday. In Iraq, he was expected to meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and other leaders before departing several hours later.

Previous Trips

The president has made three previous unannounced trips to Iraq -- on Thanksgiving 2003, June 13, 2006 and Sept. 3, 2007.

While those earlier trips were intended largely to bolster troop morale and shore up domestic support for the war, Bush’s latest Iraq visit amounted to a valedictory appearance. He leaves office on Jan. 20.

Bush, in his weekly radio address on Dec. 6, called for what amounted to a political cease-fire in the long domestic debate over Iraq.

“We have an opportunity to adopt a new perspective,” Bush said. “There were legitimate differences of opinion about the initial decision to remove Saddam Hussein and the subsequent conduct of the war. But now the surge and the courage of brave Iraqis have turned the situation around.”

The president’s 2007 trip to Iraq came less than two weeks before he was to report to Congress on the war’s progress. At the time, the war was becoming increasingly unpopular with the public and many lawmakers were growing impatient with its progress.

Security Improves

Since then, as a result of a surge of additional U.S. troops to Iraq early last year, security in the oil-rich nation has improved markedly.

There are about 149,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, according to the Defense Department.

The movement of Sunni tribesmen to oppose al-Qaeda that began in mid-2006 and the cease-fire ordered by Shiite militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr in 2007 also contributed to the stability in Iraq.

Civilian casualties have plunged to less than 500 in November from about 3,500 in January 2007, according to Pentagon data cited in the “Iraq Index” of the Washington-based Brookings Institution. Attacks on U.S. troops have fallen to less than 300 a week from a high of more than 1,500 in June 2007.

Secrecy

Still, out of concern for the president’s safety, the White House imposed secrecy in the run-up to his departure.

Reporters who were to accompany Bush were individually informed of the trip -- in person and barely a day in advance. They also were forbidden from reporting on the trip until after touchdown in Iraq.

In addition, the White House engaged in a bit of public deception.

On Friday evening, even as presidential press secretary Dana Perino was meeting with a reporter in her car on Capitol Hill to disclose the trip and its logistics, the White House released a press schedule that had the president and First Lady Laura Bush attending a Sunday evening Christmas celebration in Washington. He isn’t due back until tomorrow.

Bush’s press office sent notices summoning the small group of reporters who accompany the president on even the most routine visits in Washington to gather at the White House this morning and this evening.

Bush was accompanied on this overseas trip by National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley and Army Lieutenant General Douglas Lute, the president’s coordinator of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

On Bush’s first two Iraq trips, he slipped away from his ranch in Crawford, Texas, in 2003 and from Camp David in 2006. On his 2007 visit, Bush stopped in Iraq en route to an international summit in Australia.

To contact the reporter on this story: Edwin Chen in Iraq echen32@bloomberg.net;

Last Updated: December 14, 2008 10:38 EST