Iraq's President Jalal Talabani returned home Monday after heart surgery and warned that a delay in an agreement on the presence of US troops in the country beyond 2008 could undermine sovereignty.
Talabani, who spent nearly two months in the United States for medical treatment, said, however, that he expected an early conclusion of the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between Washington and Baghdad.
"We hope to reach good results (on the SOFA agreement) because not reaching an agreement means it will lead to a daily violation of the sovereignty of Iraq," he said in Arbil, capital of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region.
SOFA is to put in place a deal for the future of US troops after the UN Security Council mandate for the multinational force expires on December 31.
But differences still remain, notably on granting immunity to US soldiers for any violations committed in Iraq and on the future command of military operations on the ground.
Talabani, 74, left Iraq on August 2 to undergo medical tests and treatment for his knee, but doctors carried out heart surgery after several tests showed that he had a coronary condition.
The ethnic Kurd, who has been president since 2005, travelled to the United States for medical check-ups last year and was also treated for dehydration and exhaustion in neighbouring Jordan in February 2007.
He also played down ethnic tensions between Kurds and majority Arabs in the northern parts of Iraq.
"We all believe in the unity of Iraq," he said, adding that media reports of tension between Iraqi security forces and the former Kurdish fighters known as peshmerga had been over stated.
