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Fri 07 Jul 2008Turkish leader on landmark first visit to Iraq
TURKEY:TURKISH PRIME minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan paid his first visit to Iraq yesterday, becoming the second regional leader to brave Baghdad's chronic insecurity to hold talks on security and reconstruction assistance and the presence of Turkish Kurdish rebels in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region.
He was greeted by his Iraqi counterpart Nuri al-Maliki, foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari, and oil minister Hussein al-Shahristani and met president Jalal Talabani later in the day. Mr Erdogan's meetings with Mr Zebari and Mr Talabani, both Kurds, were particularly significant because of the sensitive issue of the Turkish Kurds.
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