Iran president begins historic Iraq trip

BAGHDAD: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad began on Sunday a historic visit to Iraq -- the first ever by an Iranian president -- hoping to boost ties with Baghdad with which Tehran fought a bitter eight-year war. When asked if Ahmadinejad had arrived in Baghdad, Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said: "Yes. "I am here to receive him at the airport." Ahmadinejad arrived in Baghdad airport at around 9:05 am (0605 GMT) and is heading a large delegation including Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki. Ahead of the two-day trip Ahmadinejad said the trip is expected to be a "major step in deepening brotherly relations" between the two Muslim neighbours. Speaking to reporters in Tehran on Saturday, he reiterated Iran's belief that the "insecurity, disagreement and tension" in war-ravaged Iraq were a result of a "plot" by the United States, the arch-enemy of Iran. "It is the American practice to present others as guilty wherever they are defeated," he said, dismissing US allegations of Iranian meddling in Iraq. "Is it not funny that those with 160,000 forces in Iraq accuse us of interference?" US President George W. Bush, in a scathing response, told his counterpart during a press conference in Texas with visiting Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen that Iran must be told to "quit sending in sophisticated equipment that's killing our citizens." The US military in Iraq says that Iran is supplying weapons and training for anti-US insurgents. Iran denies the charges. Ahmadinejad's visit to Shiite-majority Iraq is set to underline Western concerns about Iranian influence in the region that Washington alleges extends to aiding militants in Iraq and also destabilising Lebanon. The trip is a strong show of support by Tehran for the Shiite-dominated government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Ahmadinejad's visit also aims "to tell the US it is us and not you who have influence in Iraq. Do not think that you can do whatever you like over there," said Mohammad Sadegh al-Hosseini, an Iran-based expert on Iranian-Arab affairs. " Iran is also going there to brush aside any ambiguities that it is responsible for instability in Iraq," he added.