During his visit on Monday and Tuesday, he is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Ahmet Necdet Sezer.

Erdogan's press office said the visit was of "special importance" and described Maliki as a leader "who works for the protection of Iraq's political and territorial integrity and for peaceful ties between Iraq and its neighbors."

The praise for Maliki was in sharp contrast with the snipes Turkish leaders took last month at Iraq's Kurdish president, Jalal Talabani, who accused neighbors of meddling in Baghdad's affairs and threatened to retaliate by supporting their dissident groups.

Talabani's remarks had a stinging connotation for Turkey at a time when it is pressing Baghdad and Washington to crack down on the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which uses bases in the mountains of northern Iraq as a spingboard for attacks across the border in Turkey.

Maliki's visit follows talks here between Turkish leaders and Joseph W. Ralston, the special US coordinator with Ankara in the fight against the PKK, blacklisted as a terrorist group by Turkey and much of the international community.

Ralston said Thursday that a PKK ceasefire since October 1 was welcome but added that the group "needs to lay down arms and renounce violence."

Ankara has threatened cross-border operations into northern Iraq if Washington and Baghdad fail to act against the PKK, which significantly stepped violence in Turkey this year.

Ankara charges the rebels enjoy unrestricted movement in Kurdish-run northern Iraq and are easily able to obtain weapons and explosives there.

The Kurdish conflict in Turkey has claimed more than 37,000 lives since the PKK took up arms for self-rule in the mainly Kurdish southeast in 1984.