Iraq's president arrived in Turkey for a working visit yesterday, a week after the Turkish army ended its controversial assault on PKK Kurdish separatists in the mountains of northern Iraq.

Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, is the first Iraqi head of state to visit Turkey since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. The trip coincides with a growing impression among foreign diplomats in Ankara that the Turkish government is trying to extend its focus on Iraq away from the fight against terrorism and to engage more with Baghdad to ensure, among other things, that the country does not disintegrate.