PARIS/BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraq's president was expected to sign a series of agreements during his first state visit to France starting Monday, capping efforts at rebuilding bilateral ties more than six years after Paris spurned the war to oust Saddam Hussein.
President Jalal Talabani heads a delegation that includes Iraq's defence, foreign and finance ministers for the four-day visit, opening with a meeting with President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Before leaving for France, Talabani told reporters that "the aim of the visit is to sign some protocols that can enhance and develop the mutual relations between the two countries". Iraqi officials said trade, military and economic matters were among the main issues. French officials declined to specify.
Talabani was greeted by French Industry Minister Christian Estrosi at a red-carpet welcome at Paris' Orly airport.
Iraq's first Kurdish president has visited France several times since the 2003 war, but never with the pageantry of a state visit.
France and Germany - two of the leading critics of the US-led invasion that removed Saddam from power - began rebuilding ties with Iraq this year. French oil giant Total and EADS, the European aerospace and defence company, have been looking for new business with Baghdad.
The United States has dominated the Iraqi arms market since 2003. After Sarkozy's February trip to Iraq, the country bought a fleet of 24 helicopters from French-based Eurocopter, a branch of Airbus parent company EADS, for around $500 million.
Talabani is to meet with French lawmakers and business leaders, visit the Institute of the Arab World and the Arc de Triomphe, location of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
After the traditional meeting with Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe, Talabani was to make a speech.
France has had "particularly intense" bilateral exchanges with Iraq in recent months, French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero told reporters Thursday when asked about Talabani's visit.
This year brought a flurry of back-and-forth visits between Paris and Baghdad. Besides Sarkozy's February trip, Prime Minister Francois Fillon traveled there in July.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki came to France in May.
France's foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, paved the way with visits to Iraq in 2007 and 2008.
Violence
Gunmen wearing Iraqi army uniforms abducted and killed at least 13 people in a village west of Baghdad, in what some described as revenge against Sunnis who helped fight Al Qaeda, Iraqi officials said Monday.
The exact motive for the attack was unclear, but it could be a case of insurgents killing locals allied to the central government or an internal struggle among the region's fractious tribes ahead January's elections.
The victims included a member of the country's main Sunni political party and several of his relatives, said party official Mohammed Iqbal, suggesting a political motive to the attack.
While members of the Iraqi military have been accused in the past of taking part in extra-judicial killings, such uniforms are also widely available on the open market and have been used by insurgents in the past to conceal their identities.
Violence has dropped dramatically in the predominantly Sunni regions of western Iraq after local tribes, many of whom had been involved in the anti-US insurgency, banded together in so-called Awakening Councils and turned on their former allies, the militant group Al Qaeda in Iraq.
Meanwhile, in the northern city of Kirkuk a parked car bomb exploded in a market, killing five people and wounding seven others, said Kirkuk Police spokesman Col. Sarhat Qadir.
