Iranian FM in Baghdad for talks with Iraqi leaders

BAGHDAD - Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad- Javad Zarif arrived in Baghdad on an official visit to meet with the Iraqi leaders over bilateral relations and developments in the Middle East, an official told Xinhua on Tuesday.

Zarif and his accompanying delegation arrived in Baghdad airport and was received by his Iraqi counterpart Hoshyar Zebari, the official from the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said.

The Iranian foreign minister is expected to hold meetings with Zebari and the Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to discuss the situation in the region as well as means to enhance bilateral ties, the source said.

Zarif's visit came one day after an official visit by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to Baghdad, in which he met top Iraqi officials, including Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Parliament Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, before he flew on Tuesday morning to Iraq's semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan to meet with the Kurdish regional officials and visit the camps of the Syrian refugees in the region.

Relations between the Shiite Muslim country of Iran and the Shiite-dominated government of Iraq have picked up considerably since Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated regime was ousted in a US- led invasion in 2003.

Iraq and Iran fought a bloody eight-year war in 1980s, resulting in the loss of one million lives.