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President of Iraq's Kurdistan starts Saudi visit

RIYADH, March 12, 2007 (AFP) - The president of the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq, Massud Barzani, arrived on Monday in the Saudi capital, the official news agency SPA reported.

Barzani will hold talks with Saudi officials during a visit of "a few days" to the oil-rich kingdom, his spokesman Fuad Hussein told AFP. The visit was at the invitation of Saudi King Abdullah.

"During the visit president Barzani will discuss bilateral relations with the kingdom, besides the security and political situation in Iraq," he said.

Iraq on February 14 reopened its embassy in Riyadh, which had been shut since December 1990, shortly before US-led allied forces drove the Iraqi occupying army out of neighbouring Kuwait.

Iraq's Kurdistan has had an autonomous status since Iraq's defeat in the 1991 Gulf War over Kuwait.

The northern regions of Iraq are peaceful compared to the war-ravaged country's centre and west where a bitter sectarian strife and raging anti-US insurgency have left thousands dead.