Panetta arrives in Irbil, meets president of Kurdish regional government

(12 Jul 2011) SHOTLIST 1. US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta gets out of car, shakes hands with president of the Kurdish regional government, Massoud Barzani 2. Cutaway assembled media 3. Barzani and Panetta walking along red carpet towards building 4. Barzani and Panetta seated for talks 5. Various of meeting room with delegations STORYLINE Wrapping up his first visit to Iraq as US Defence Secretary, Leon Panetta was on Tuesday meeting with the president of the Kurdish regional government, Massoud Barzani. Panetta was expected to stress the urgency of the Iraqi government filling two key positions, those responsible for the army and the police. Lacking leaders in those positions has kept Iraq from deciding whether it wants US troops to stay beyond their scheduled final departure in December. The Kurds are one of three main groups sharing government power in Baghdad, along with the Sunnis and the majority Shiites. A final drawdown of the 46-thousand US troops in Iraq is to begin in August and be completed by December 31. Panetta was returning to Washington after his meeting with Barzani. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...