French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has arrived in Baghdad, the highest-ranking French official to visit Iraq since the invasion in 2003.
'At the invitation of Mr Jalal Talabani, president of Iraq, the foreign minister has just begun an official visit to Baghdad,' the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Under former President Jacques Chirac, France led international opposition to the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
This month President Nicolas Sarkozy and US President George W Bush stressed friendship at a lunch at the Bush family estate aimed at improving relations strained by the events in Iraq.
