July 3 (Bloomberg) -- Vice President Joseph Biden told Iraqi leaders that the U.S. might disengage from their country if it reverts to sustained sectarian or ethnic violence.

“Your future, successful future, is very much in our interest,” Biden said he told Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Baghdad today, according to a press pool report of the vice president’s visit to Iraq.

Biden told Maliki during private talks that if Iraq fell into a period of sectarian violence or engaged in ethnic violence, such a step would change the nature of U.S. engagement, a senior administration official said, according to the pool report. The aide did not offer specifics about the change, it said.

Earlier this year, President Barack Obama put the U.S. on a path toward a complete withdrawal of troops by 2011.

Biden is on a two-day trip to Iraq for talks with top Iraqi leaders. He carried a message from the president reinforcing the U.S. commitment to help Iraq maintain its security while the American military pullout proceeds.

The U.S. withdrew combat forces from Iraqi cities on June 30, a step that Biden said “marked a very important milestone on the road to a stable, secure and self-reliant Iraq,” according to the pool report.

In Iraq, a wave of attacks that may be intended to challenge the security transfer included a car bombing in the northern city of Kirkuk earlier this week that killed at least 41 people and wounded 120. Tensions between the Iraqi Arabs and Turkmen of the area on one side and Kurds on the other have simmered for the past six years over control of land and Kirkuk’s surrounding oil fields.

Maliki Comments

Maliki told reporters after his meeting with Biden that the June 30 pullout “confirms the credibility of the agreements in place” between the U.S. and Iraq, and that the accords are “being faithfully committed.”

Even as U.S. forces withdraw, the administration is committed to maintaining a program of training and equipping Iraqi security against insurgent attacks. The accord also promises a building of commercial, cultural and education ties.

Earlier in the day, Biden met with General Ray Odierno, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, and Christopher Hill, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq. The vice president also had breakfast with his son Beau, an Army captain in Iraq.

Maliki said he discussed with Biden a future visit by Iraqi leaders to the U.S. “to meet with businessmen and representatives of universities,” according to the pool report.

It was Biden’s second trip to Iraq this year, but his first as vice president. He made several trips to Iraq as former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Obama plans to reduce U.S. troop strength in Iraq, currently at 131,000, to no more than 50,000 by August 2010.

To contact the reporter on this story: Roger Runningen in Washington at rrunningen@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: July 3, 2009 18:19 EDT