Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki will pay a visit to Turkey next week upon the invitation of his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.
During al-Maliki's visit in Turkey, the two sides will discuss problems regarding the Turkish-Iraqi relations, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Levent Bilman told reporters at a weekly press conference.
"It is not yet known for sure who al-Maliki will meet (in Ankara) and I do not want to say anything before his schedule is finalized," Bilman noted.
Security issues would top the agenda of the meetings, along with trade and economic relations, the spokesman added.
Ankara has been asking Washington and Baghdad to take concrete steps to crack down on the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.
The PKK has stepped up its attacks on government troops in southeastern Turkey in recent months, which had provoked Ankara to voice request to conduct a cross-border operation against the PKK strongholds into northern Iraq.
The PKK launched an armed campaign for an ethnic homeland in the mainly Kurdish southeastern Turkey in 1984, sparking decades of strife that has claimed more than 30,000 lives.
Source: Xinhua
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