IRAQ:Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has hailed a new chapter in ties with Iraq and has criticised the United States over its policies in the Middle East during a landmark visit to Baghdad.
Mr Ahmadinejad is the first Iranian president to go to Iraq since Saddam Hussein launched an eight-year war on Iran in 1980, in which one million people died.
Mr Ahmadinejad's two-day trip, to a country where the US has more than 150,000 troops, is as much about symbolism as about cementing economic and cultural ties between the neighbours, both run by Shia majorities.
He has rejected long-standing US accusations that Iran is arming Shia militias in Iraq who kill American soldiers.
"The Americans have to understand the facts of the region," he said yesterday. "Iraqi people do not like America."
Mr Ahmadinejad met Iraq's prime minister Nuri al-Maliki at Mr Maliki's office in the "green zone" - the US-protected central Baghdad compound that houses government ministries, parliament and the US embassy - under the almost constant drone of US military helicopters.
US officials said that they would play no role in the visit and that the US military would not be involved in protecting Mr Ahmadinejad, unless they were asked for help.
Mr Ahmadinejad said at an earlier news conference with Iraqi president Jalal Talabani that his visit would open a new chapter in relations with Iraq and help regional co-operation.
"A visit to Iraq without the dictator is a truly happy one," he said, referring to Saddam Hussein, who was executed by the Iraqi government in December 2006.
Mr Talabani said that Iraq would seek to expel the Iranian rebel Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK) group, a long-time Iranian demand that is set to be raised during Mr Ahmadinejad's visit.
"The presence of those terrorists is forbidden by the constitution and we are working to get rid of them," Mr Talabani said.
The US military said in a statement, however, that it was not aware of any armed or organised MEK group in Iraq. It said its fighters had disarmed during the US-led invasion and now lived in a camp with "protected persons" status.
Many Iraqi Shia leaders were in exile in Iran during Saddam's rule and analysts say Mr Ahmadinejad will use his visit to show Washington that Tehran is an influential player in Iraq that cannot be ignored.Scattered protests were held in Baghdad and towns with sizeable Sunni Arab populations against Mr Ahmadinejad's visit. - (Reuters)