Biden spends July 4 with son, other troops in Iraq

(BAGHDAD) Vice President Joe Biden spent the Fourth of July with his son and other American troops in Iraq on Saturday, while the Iraqi government spokesman publicly rejected the American's offer to help with national reconciliation, saying it's an internal affair.

Biden took a break from politics and presided over a naturalization ceremony for 237 U.S. troops from 59 countries in a marble rotunda at one of Saddam Hussein's former palaces at what is now Camp Victory, the U.S. military headquarters on the western outskirts of Baghdad.

He then had lunch with the 261st Theater Tactical Signal Brigade from Delaware, to which his son, Beau, belongs. Beau Biden stood in the back as his father greeted the troops. In telling the brigade about the naturalization ceremony, the vice president used some of his characteristic colorful language.

"We did it in Saddam's palace, and I can think of nothing better," he said. "That S.O.B. is rolling over in his grave right now."

Biden's unusually long three-day trip to Baghdad, which began late Thursday, was aimed at fostering political reconciliation after U.S. combat troops withdrew from Iraqi cities as part of a security pact that calls for a full withdrawal by the end of 2011.

Government's spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh's comments were in response to an appeal Biden made a day earlier for Iraqis to do more to bring the country's deeply divided factions together and his offer of U.S. help. Biden also warned Friday that U.S. assistance may not be forthcoming if the country reverts to ethnic and sectarian violence.