Barack Obama arrives in Iraq on second leg of tour

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Presumptive U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama arrived in Iraq on Monday for talks with Iraqi officials and U.S. commanders over a 5-year-old war he has pledged to end, a U.S. Embassy spokesman said.

Barack Obama speaks Sunday in Kabul, Afghanistan, as a U.S. soldier listens.

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It is Obama's second trip to Iraq, following a visit in 2006. His arrival follows a weekend visit to Afghanistan, part of an overseas trip for the Illinois senator that will include other stops in the Middle East and Europe.

Obama is expected to meet Gen. David Petraeus, U.S. Amb. Ryan Crocker and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki during this visit.

Obama has said that if elected, he would order the military to end the war in Iraq and commit more troops to Afghanistan.

He is accompanied by Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, a leading Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican who serves on the Foreign Relations Committee and is an outspoken GOP critic of the Iraq war.

"The senators have a busy day ahead of them, as they meet with senior Iraqi officials, coalition leadership and officials from the U.S. Embassy," Embassy spokesman Armand Cucciniello said.

They also plan to meet with troops from their home states and U.S. civilians working in Iraq, Cucciniello said. See a map with photos of Obama's trip »

Although Obama is making the trip as a senator from Illinois and not a presidential candidate, it is aimed at boosting Obama's foreign policy credentials.

Presumptive Republican nominee John McCain criticized Obama's proposals as naive and premature. He has said Obama was wrong to talk about his plans for Iraq and Afghanistan before he "even left, before he has talked to Gen. (David) Petraeus, before he has seen the progress in Iraq and before" his first visit to Afghanistan, which happened Saturday and Sunday. Watch what Iraqis think of Obama and McCain »

"In my experience, fact-finding missions usually work best the other way around: First, you assess the facts on the ground; then you present a new strategy."

Obama spent Saturday and Sunday in Afghanistan, where he met with U.S. troops at three bases and with Afghan President Hamid Karzai -- a leader the Democratic senator has criticized for doing too little to rebuild the war-torn nation.

The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee met with Karzai in the capital city of Kabul during Obama's first visit to the Asian nation.

Obama has made Afghanistan a key focus of his foreign policy, saying he would make it the central front in the "war on terror" if elected.