ABU DHABI, July 29 (AFP) - Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi began Thursday a visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on the latest stop of his first Middle East tour since taking office last month.
Allawi was received by Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed al-Nahyan, who is also foreign minister, and the Emirati Information Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the state news agency WAM reported.
No details were provided about Allawi's visit to the UAE capital.
The Iraqi premier arrived here from the Saudi Red Sea city of Jeddah where he restored Iraq's diplomatic ties with Riyadh, severed since the 1991 Gulf War when US-led forces used the kingdom as a springboard to free neighbouring Kuwait from Iraqi occupation.
Allawi, who is leading a large delegation including Iraq's interim planning and oil ministers and its central bank governor, will also visit Kuwait on a tour that has also taken him to Jordan, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon.