BEIRUT (AFP) — Prime Minister Fuad Siniora is to travel to Baghdad this week for trade talks, becoming the first Lebanese leader to visit Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein, officials said on Monday.
Foreign Minister Fawzi Salukh said the visit would probably take place on Wednesday.
It follows a trip to Iraq on August 11 by Jordan's King Abdullah II, the first by an Arab head of state since the 2003 US-led invasion which toppled Saddam.
After the king's visit, Amman said it has appointed an ambassador to Baghdad where its embassy has been run by a charge d'affaires since it came under deadly attack in 2003.
Iraq has an embassy in Beirut, while Jawad al-Haeri was in 2006 named Lebanon's first ambassador in post-Saddam Baghdad. He died on July 12 and has not yet been replaced.
"The discussions with Iraqi leaders will be on bilateral relations and particularly trade and oil," the premier's spokesman said on Monday, without confirming a specific date for the trip.
Baghdad is working to rebuild relations with its neighbours in the wake of five years of bloodshed that continues despite violence having now dipped to a four-year low.
Washington has been pushing its Sunni Arab allies, notably regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia, to send ambassadors and high-level officials to Baghdad to help shore up support for the country's Shiite leadership.
The United States also hopes that these countries will offer financial support to Iraq and counterbalance the influence of Iran, which US President George W. Bush has accused of negative interference in Iraqi affairs.
Prior to 2003, Lebanon and Iraq had had a strong trading relationship, mainly in food products.
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