Iraq to use Ahmadinejad visit to settle old issues

By Mariam Karouny

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq wants to use a landmark visit by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday to resolve long-running disputes, including defining their common border, Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi said on Saturday.

The dispute over the border, which centred on the strategic Shatt al-Arab waterway, triggered an eight-year war between the neighbours in the 1980s that killed more than a million people.

"The two countries were at war for more than eight years and this has left us with lots of problems that we have to work on solving," Abdul-Mahdi told Reuters on the eve of Ahmadinejad's two-day visit to Iraq.

"This is an important visit and all sides are working on making it successful," he said, speaking in his office in the U.S.-protected Green Zone compound in Baghdad.

Little has been disclosed about the agenda for the visit by Ahmadinejad, the first Iranian president to visit Iraq since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

"Some files have accumulated throughout our history, like border agreements, security agreements and political ones. When the meeting is on a presidential level then it is important to discuss and resolve these issues," Abdul-Mahdi said.

ALGIERS AGREEMENT

"The most important issue is to solve pending problems like finance and the border points, but the main thing is that we are going to seek to strengthen and develop relations."