Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is set to make his first visit to Iraq Thursday aimed at boosting security and reconstruction efforts and to discuss the thorny cross-border issue of Kurdish rebels.
"He is scheduled to arrive today. We are expecting him," an official at Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's office told AFP.
Erdogan's visit comes just a day after gunmen attacked the highly-fortified U.S. consulate in Turkey's biggest city of Istanbul, triggering a shootout that left three attackers and three police officers dead.
Erdogan would be only the second top leader from one of Iraq's neighbors to visit since the March 2003 U.S. invasion, after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made an historic trip in March.
Ahmadinejad's visit symbolized the flourishing ties between Tehran and the Shiite-led government in Baghdad installed after the ouster of Saddam Hussein by the U.S.
Worried by the growing tilt of Baghdad towards Shiite dominated Iran, Washington has been urging Iraq's other Sunni-led neighbors to boost their diplomatic ties with Baghdad.
Last month, Turkish special envoy Murat Ozcelik met al-Maliki and announced that Erdogan intended to visit Baghdad, although there has been no confirmation of Thursday's visit from Ankara.
During his talks with Maliki, Ozcelik underlined Turkey's desire to support Iraq in its efforts to advance stability and reconstruction, the Iraqi premier's office said.
The Turkish premier is expected to sign several agreements with Iraq.
"There are wide ranging agreements on the table that would be discussed and signed in areas of commerce, tourism and technology," the official from al-Maliki's office said.
Apart from the trade agreements, the key issue that would dominate the meetings of Erdogan with Iraqi leaders would be Ankara's sustained cross-border raids in northern Iraq targeting suspected bases of the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.
Aided by U.S. intelligence, Turkey has carried out several air strikes against border areas since mid-December under a one-year authorization from its parliament that comes up for renewal in October.
In February, Turkish troops conducted a week-long ground offensive against a PKK camp in the Zap area. The operation left more than 200 rebels dead, according to the Turkish army.
Blacklisted as a terrorist group by the European Union and the U.S., the PKK has been fighting for self-rule in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast since 1984. The conflict has claimed more than 37,000 lives.
Ankara charges that more than 2,000 Kurdish rebels have found safe haven in northern Iraq, where they are able to obtain weapons and explosives for attacks inside Turkey.