World Bulletin / News Desk 

Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi and President Barack Obama will discuss the fight against ISIL on Tuesday at a White House meeting likely to be dominated by Iraqi requests for U.S. arms and tension over Iran's role on the battlefield.

In his first U.S. trip since becoming prime minister, Abadi is expected to seek billions of dollars in drones and other U.S. weapons to combat ISIL, which seized much of northern and central Iraq last year.

Obama, who came to power on the back of a promise to end the war in Iraq, is restricted by public aversion to U.S. entanglement in another regional conflict and congressional constraints on his budget authority.

"The U.S. is not going to be willing to step up in terms of major military support. It's unclear that the U.S. can budget for major aid," said Anthony Cordesman, foreign policy expert at the Center for Strategic & International Studies in Washington.

Obama in August authorized the first U.S. air strikes on Iraq since the 2011 U.S. troop withdrawal and has deployed about 3,000 American military forces to train and advise Iraqi and Kurdish forces to fight Islamic State.

"If there are specific ideas that Prime Minister Abadi has for stepped-up assistance, then we'll obviously consider them seriously," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Monday.

"The goal is to continue the obviously deep coordination that already exists between the United States and Iraq. This is a partnership that the United States is obviously deeply invested in."