Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad who will pay an official unprecedented visit to Iraq between March 3 and 4 will also visit Kurdish leaders in Erbil, sources close to Iraqi President Talabani told The New Anatolian.

Ahmedinejad is expected to meet with Massoud Barzani, the leader of the Kurdish region and also pay an official visit to the Kurdish Regional Parliament.

Sources said this is a message to Ankara which refuses any form of contacts with the Iraqi Kurds.

However, Iran is also strongly against the presence of Kurdish secessionist militants who are using northern Iraq to launch terrorist attacks in Turkey and Iraq.

Turkey has started launching a series of air raids against the bases of the PKK in northern Iraq. Iran has also been shelling the region.
Meanwhile, Talabani described the upcoming visit of Ahmadinejad to Iraq as 'unprecedented'.

"Iraq attaches great importance to such a visit," the Iraqi president said in a meeting with Iran's Ambassador to Baghdad Hassan Kazemi Qomi," according to an informed source at the Iranian diplomatic sources.

Stressing the need for expansion of all-out relations between Iran and Iraq, he said the visit of the Iranian president would help further strengthen bilateral relations.
"Iran has provided extensive support for Iraq in the past and we want this policy to be continued as before," he said.

The U.S. which is strongly at odds with Ahmedinejad has kept silent about the upcoming visit. However, the U.S. angered both Iraqi and Kurdish officials when it arrested several Iranian officials stationed or visiting northern Iraq last year claiming they are linked to terrorist groups.

Meanwhile an Iraqi delegation is in Iran to discuss the Algiers agreement which defines their common border, Iran's students news agency ISNA reported.

Talabani appeared to be reopening an old border dispute in December when he said that the 32-year-old treaty had been "voided by the current government".

Three days later he reversed his comments, saying the treaty was still valid but that Iraq would like to negotiate changes in it. Iran welcomed his revised comments, but has repeatedly said Tehran has no intention of discussing changes to the treaty.