Iraqi prime minister in United Arab Emirates for talks

Al-Maliki is expected to meet Emirates President Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan later Monday to discuss his new unity government of Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds and his goal of reconciling Iraq's rival factions.

Photo: Iraqi prime minister in United Arab Emirates for talks

WAM reported that al-Maliki arrived from the Saudi capital Riyadh for an overnight visit to the Emirates, the second leg on a Gulf tour that is also to take him to Kuwait.

On the weekend, al-Maliki was in Saudi Arabia where he held talks with King Abdullah and Crown Prince Sultan, and performed the minor pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina.

The Emirates, which is home to thousands of Iraqi exiles, was one of the first Arab countries to send aid to Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion of 2003. The country has built and staffed a small hospital in Baghdad, the Sheik Zayed Hospital, named for the longtime Emirates ruler who died in 2004.

The Emirates also runs a training camp where Iraqi police and special forces' cadets receive instruction from German experts, according to the AP.

Relations between Iraq and the Arab states of the Gulf have been cool since the insurgency erupted after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in April 2003. Gulf regimes fear that Iraq's sectarian tensions could spill over into their countries, which are dominated by Sunnis but have Shiite communities. Prime Minister al-Maliki is a Shiite.