That was just a case of Obama saying one thing publicly and having his advisors tell world leaders something different privately.
Like when he told steel workers he was pulling us out of NAFTA and telling Canada not to worry, he won't. Same with Iraq--while he was telling primary crowds we're out of there, his foreign policy advisor was telling England not to worry. In the general election he said he'd follow a time table determined by facts on the ground--a focus-group-tested version of the Bush plan. Iraqis seem to think that's the Iraq claim he actually meant.