Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari arrived in Teheran Saturday for a three-day visit. The visit is the first by an Iraqi head of government to Iran since the 1958 overthrow of the monarchy system in Iraq. Jaafari told Iranian state television IRIB that the aim was in the first place to remove misunderstandings from the past and start new cooperation in political and especially economic fields, DPA reported. According to IRIB, the annual Iran-Iraq trade volume stood at one billion dollars last year. He added that oil and electricity cooperation stood on the agenda. Jaafari also hoped that Iran would aid Iraq in reconstructing the war-torn country. Teheran promised Baghdad last week one billion dollars in financial aid for reconstruction. Jaafari's main host will be Vice-President Mohammad-Reza Aref but the Iraqi premier was also scheduled Sunday to meet President Mohammad Khatami and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
