Kuwait's
prime minister arrived in Baghdad on Wednesday in the first such visit
since Saddam Hussein's forces invaded the oil-rich emirate in 1990,
Iraqi officials and Kuwaiti state media said.
Iraq's
deputy foreign minister, Labid Abbawi, said that Prime Minister Sheikh
Nasser Mohammad al-Ahmad al-Sabah had arrived in the Iraqi capital,
confirming a report by Kuwait's official KUNA news agency.
It
is the first visit by a Kuwaiti premier to Iraq since Sheikh Saad
al-Abdullah Al-Sabah in 1989, and the first since the late leader Saddam
ordered his forces to invade Kuwait in August 1990.
The Iraqi forces were expelled from the neighbouring emirate by an international coalition seven months later.
The
visit was "to congratulate Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on the new
government, and to confirm the depth of the relations between the two
countries," Abbawi said.
"It will create a great
opportunity to open the road for discussions about outstanding issues
between the two countries," said the deputy Iraqi diplomatic chief.
"It
is also a very important political message confirming Iraq's
preparations to host the coming Arab summit," which is planned for
March, Abbawi added.
Maliki's new government was
approved by parliament on December 21, after more than nine months of
political gridlock following an inconclusive election as political
groups haggled over the formation of a coalition.
The
visit also comes two days after a clash between Kuwaiti coast guards and
Iraqi fishermen in which a Kuwaiti was killed and an Iraqi fishing boat
sunk.
Kuwait's interior ministry said the skirmish
occurred when an Iraqi boat entered Kuwaiti waters and refused orders
from a coast guard patrol to stop.
Dabbagh said on
Tuesday that "a private Iraqi boat was fired upon by Kuwaiti coast
guards, and sank. One of the members of the Kuwaiti forces was killed,
and the Kuwaitis detained four Iraqis."
There are a
number of outstanding issues between Iraq and Kuwait relating to the
1990 Iraqi invasion and subsequent occupation of Kuwait.
Iraq
still pays five percent of revenues from its oil sales into a
reparations fund for Kuwait, which is demanding that Baghdad pay another
$22 billion. Kuwait has received about $13 billion in reparations.
Kuwait also demands that Iraq return property stolen during the occupation and explain the fate of hundreds of missing Kuwaitis.
In
December, the emirate urged Iraq to fully apply all international
resolutions and settle outstanding issues after the UN Security Council
voted to end key sanctions imposed on Baghdad.
At the
time, the Kuwaiti cabinet also welcomed UN Security Council resolutions
to halt some sanctions imposed on Iraq after Saddam ordered his troops
to invade Kuwait in 1990.
Kuwait said then that
"commitment to serious and full implementation of Security Council
resolutions related to the situation between Iraq and Kuwait will close
all files and settle outstanding issues.
"This will
also lay foundations for strong relations based on the respect of
sovereignty and independence and the principle of good neighbourly
relations and non-interference in internal affairs," it said.