(Ebru News/AP) Barack Obama says he is going to visit Iraq and Afghanistan before the November election. The presumed Democratic presidential nominee said he spoke with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari about the war and told him he looks forward to seeing him in Baghdad.

Speaking to a a crowd of more than a thousand at Kettering University in Flint, Michigan, Obama said that it was time the Iraqi Government starting taking a greater responsibility in rebuilding the country.

Senator Barack Obama, Presumptive Democratic nominee:
"It is time to stop spending billions of dollars a week on a blank cheque for an Iraqi government that won't spend its own oil revenue."

Obama also talked about how his policies would help Americans cope with high prices for gasoline, food and education and his plans to move America to a more global economy.

Senator Barack Obama, Presumptive Democratic nominee:
"Not only is it impossible to turn back the tide of globalisation, but efforts to do so can actually make us worse off.  So rather than fear the future, we have to embrace it."

The news of Mr Obama's travel plans came as his Republican opponent, Senator John McCain, continued to criticise the Democrat's stance on the country, at a news conference in Arlington, Virginia.

 Senator John McCain, presumptive Republican presidential nominee:
"I hope that Senator Obama who now is closing in on its 900th day since he visited Iraq. I urge him to meet with the foreign minister of Iraq and more importantly I ask him to request a meeting with General Petraeus and sit down and get his assessment of the military situation."

The visit would be the first for Obama since he made his only trip to Iraq in January 2006 as part of a congressional delegation.