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WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Joe Biden is visiting Iraq on a previously unannounced mission to show the White House remains focused on the Iraq war.

The White House is announcing the trip, Biden's third of this year, as a chance as well to meet with the full range of Iraqi leaders both in Baghdad's central government and those of the Kurdish region in the northeast of the country where violence continues to flare.

Biden also is to meet with members of the United Nations mission in the country.