BAGHDAD (AP) - A key aide says Prime Minister [tag]Nouri al-Maliki’s relations with U.S. commander Gen. David Petraeus[/tag] are so poor that the Iraqi leader may ask Washington to withdraw the well-regarded U.S. military leader from duty in Iraq.

The Iraqi foreign minister calls the relationship difficult.

Petraeus says his ties with al-Maliki are “very good” but acknowledges expressing “the full range of emotions” on “a couple of occasions.”

U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker, who meets together with al-Maliki and Petraeus at least weekly, concedes “sometimes there are sporty exchanges.”

Al-Maliki has spoken sharply - not of Petraeus or Crocker personally - but about their tactic of welcoming Sunni militants into the fight against al-Qaida forces in Anbar and Diyala provinces.

But the reality of how the three men get along likely lies somewhere between the worst and best reports about their relationship - perhaps one of the most important in the world and unquestionably central to the future of Iraq, the larger Middle East and scores of political, diplomatic and military careers in the United States.

A tangle of issues confront the three men, and none of them present clear or easy solutions:

-Al-Maliki, a Shiite who spent years in exile under Saddam Hussein, hotly objects to U.S. tactic of recruiting men with ties to the Sunni insurgency into the ongoing fight against al-Qaida. He has complained loudly but with little effect except a U.S. pledge to let al-Maliki’s security apparatus vet the recruits before they join the force. He also has spoken bitterly, aides say, about delivery delays of promised U.S. weapons and equipment for his forces.

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