US President Barack Obama will meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki at the White House on December 12, just days before all US troops are due out of Iraq, a US official said Friday.

"The two leaders will hold talks on deepening the comprehensive strategic partnership between the United States and Iraq," White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement.

"The president honors the sacrifices and achievements of all those who have served in Iraq, and of the Iraqi people, to reach this moment full of promise for an enduring US-Iraq friendship," he added.

Obama said on October 21 that all American troops will leave Iraq by the end of the year, ending the long war which followed the 2003 invasion ordered by his predecessor, then president George W. Bush.

Under a 2008 security pact, the United States must pull out all troops by the end of the year. But negotiations for a possibly smaller post-2011 force of a few thousand faltered over the question of legal immunity for US soldiers.

A US general said Thursday the "vast majority" of remaining US troops in Iraq would be out by mid-December as the withdrawal picks up pace.

Less than 34,000 troops remain in Iraq after reaching a peak of 170,000 in 2007 during a buildup ordered by Bush, said Major General Thomas Spoehr, deputy commanding general for the US force in Iraq.

"As I look at the plan, I think it's clear to me that by the time we get to about mid-December or so, the vast majority of the US forces in Iraq -- we plan to have them withdrawn from Iraq by that time," he said via video link from Baghdad.

US soldier killed after Iraq pullout announcement
Baghdad (AFP) Nov 4, 2011 - A US soldier has been killed in northern Iraq, the US military said on Friday, the first American service member to die in an attack here since the US announced its forces would depart by year's end.

"A US service member was killed Thursday while conducting operations in northern Iraq," the military said in a brief statement, without providing further details.

An Iraqi security source told AFP that boys attacked an American convoy in the ethnically divided oil city of Kirkuk with a thermal bomb on Thursday.

A similar bomb was used against another convoy on Friday, the source said, without specifying if it resulted in casualties.

The hand-thrown thermal bombs are especially effective against armoured vehicles.

The US military confirmed in an email that there was an attack on a convoy in Kirkuk on Friday morning, but said "there were no injuries and no damage to the vehicles."

The US soldier killed on Thursday was the first to die in an attack in Iraq since US President Barack Obama announced on October 21 that US forces would leave by the end of this year.

The last attack in Iraq that killed a US soldier was on September 29.

The latest death came on the same day that a US general said most US troops here would be out by mid-December.

"As I look at the plan, I think it's clear to me that by the time we get to about mid-December or so, the vast majority of the US forces in Iraq -- we plan to have them withdrawn from Iraq by that time," said Major General Thomas Spoehr, deputy commanding general of US forces in Iraq.

Thursday's death brings to 4,483 the number of US soldiers who have died in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, according to an AFP tally based on data compiled by icasualties.org.