Bush's surprise Iraq visit cloaked in secrecy

BAGHDAD, June 13 (Reuters) After dinner with his cabinet at Camp David yesterday night, President George W Bush said he was tired and wanted to read.

Instead, he sneaked off the heavily guarded grounds, boarded a nondescript helicopter for Andrews Air Force Base and then a secrecy-cloaked flight to Baghdad.

Bush had slipped away, pleading exhaustion by saying, ''I'm losing altitude,'' and later seemed jubilant to have pulled off his presidential disappearing act.

''The POTUS is on board,'' he shouted to reporters traveling with him as he boarded Air Force One, using White House shorthand for president of the United States.

Only Bush's innermost circle -- Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and first lady Laura Bush -- knew where he was going yeserday.

The rest of the Cabinet expected to see him at Camp David on Tuesday for a teleconference with Iraqi leaders.

But by morning at Camp David, Bush had already arrived in Iraq for a meeting with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

Wearing a navy blue suit, white shirt and blue tie, Bush swept into a large, domed room at the center of the Republican Palace, part of the US embassy compound in Baghdad.

Escorted by US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, Gen. George Casey, the top US military commander in Iraq, and other aides and Secret Service personnel, Bush walked up to Maliki and shook his hand as the cameras flashed.

Maliki said, ''Good to see you,'' to which Bush responded, ''Thanks for having me.'' White House counselor Dan Bartlett said the trip to Baghdad had been in the works for about a month. Bush wanted to meet Maliki face to face so ''they can establish a closer relationship than you can just over a telephone,'' Bartlett said.

White House officials felt confident about Bush's security because of the secrecy surrounding the trip and the fact that all the meetings were taking place inside the Baghdad Green Zone that militants have largely been unable to penetrate.

It was Bush's second visit to Iraq since the March 2003 US-led invasion. The first was a trip to see US troops over the Thanksgiving holiday in November 2003.

Reuters SY GC2125