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Tehran: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is expected to visit neighbouring Iraq by March 19, Iran's foreign minister said on Sunday, in a trip that would make him the first leader of the Islamic Republic to visit its former foe.
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was quoted as saying, "All the necessary preparations and arrangements have been made for this trip and, God willing, it will take place before the end of the year."
Mottaki referred to the Iranian year which ends on March 19. Iraq's Foreign Ministry said last month that Ahmadinejad, who often rails against the US military presence in Iraq, had accepted an invitation to visit Baghdad but a date was not announced.
Iran, a predominantly Shiite Muslim country, and Iraq fought an eight-year war in the 1980s in which hundreds of thousands were killed.
But ties have improved since Saddam Hussein was ousted in the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and a Shiite Islamist-led government came to power in Baghdad.
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