BAGHDAD (AFP)--Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki flew in to Baghdad Wednesday for talks with his Iraqi counterpart Hoshyar Zebari on boosting links between their two states, a foreign ministry official said.
Mottaki had left Tehran on Tuesday but his plane was forced to turn back from Baghdad because of high winds and dust storms, Zebari told AFP.
The two neighbors agreed in January to establish a high-ranking joint committee to improve cooperation and the "routine" trip of several days was part of that process, he said.
The two Shiite-majority countries fought a 1980-1988 war in which around 1 million people died. Ties have warmed considerably since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated regime by U.S.-led forces in 2003.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki visited Tehran last month to seek Iran's help in rebuilding the war-torn country.