FRANCE:French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner arrived in Baghdad yesterday becoming the first senior French official to visit Iraq since the beginning of the US-led war in 2003 which France vigorously opposed.
Mr Kouchner's trip coincided with French president Nicolas Sarkozy's return from a holiday in the United States which was seen as an effort to improve relations with US president George W Bush after a bitter fallout over the war.
"At the invitation of Mr Jalal Talabani, president of Iraq, the foreign minister has just begun an official visit to Baghdad," the French foreign ministry said in a statement.
"Bernard Kouchner is in Baghdad to express a French message of solidarity with the Iraqi people and to listen to the representatives of all communities."
He is expected to meet representatives of all of Iraq's different communities and with members of the government.
Former president Jacques Chirac and his then foreign minister Dominique de Villepin led international opposition to the US-led war, producing a period of frosty relations with the US. But Mr Sarkozy, who was elected in May, has sought to improve relations between the two powers, saying he wanted France to be a friend of the United States. Mr Sarkozy paid an informal visit to the Bush family estate during his holiday where they chatted over burgers and hotdogs.
A French diplomatic source said the pair had not discussed Iraq during the lunch but that France had in the last few days informed the US, as well as other European countries and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, of Mr Kouchner's trip.
Mr Kouchner's appointment after the election was seen as significant for relations with the US and with Iraq where France has no troops but has kept an embassy.
A mortar attack killed 10 people yesterday in a Shia district of eastern Baghdad where witnesses reported clashes between US forces and Shia militiamen.
Meanwhile, an American general said that Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard had 50 men training Shia militiamen in remote camps south of Baghdad.
Maj Gen Rick Lynch, whose command includes the volatile southern rim of Baghdad and districts to the south, said his troops are tracking members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps in the area - the first detailed allegation that Iranians have been training fighters in Iraq. Iran denies the allegations and says it supports efforts to stop the violence.