Iraq to use Ahmadinejad visit to settle old issues

By Mariam Karouny

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq wants to use a landmark visit by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday to resolve long-running disputes, including defining their common border, Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi said on Saturday.

The dispute over the border, which centered on the strategic Shatt al-Arab waterway, triggered an eight-year war between the neighbors in the 1980s that killed more than a million people.

"The two countries were at war for more than eight years and this has left us with lots of problems that we have to work on solving," Abdul-Mahdi told Reuters on the eve of Ahmadinejad's two-day visit to Iraq.

"This is an important visit and all sides are working on making it successful," he said, speaking in his office in the U.S.-protected Green Zone compound in Baghdad.

Little has been disclosed about the agenda for the visit by Ahmadinejad, the first Iranian president to visit Iraq since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

"Some files have accumulated throughout our history, like border agreements, security agreements and political ones. When the meeting is on a presidential level then it is important to discuss and resolve these issues," Abdul-Mahdi said.

ALGIERS AGREEMENT

"The most important issue is to solve pending problems like finance and the border points, but the main thing is that we are going to seek to strengthen and develop relations."

Iraq recently sent a delegation to Iran to seek slight changes to the Algiers agreement signed by Saddam Hussein and the then shah of Iran that defines their borders.

Iraq has said it wants to reach an agreement with its neighbor on clearing thousands of mines from the Shatt al-Arab, which controls Iraq's access to the Gulf.

"There is a problem in the Shatt al-Arab. All this has to be organized in new agreements," Abdul-Mahdi said.

He said the presence of the Mujahadeen e-Khalq group on Iraqi soil would also be discussed during Ahmadinejad's visit. The group is the largest and most militant group opposed to the Islamic Republic.

"There are problems like the presence of some groups in Iraq and the Iranians have some demands. We want to settle this file," he said.

Abdul-Mehdi is a leading member of Iraq's Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, one of the most powerful Shi'ite parties in Iraq. Its leadership was based in Iran during Saddam's rule. He will be among the Iraqi leaders meeting Ahmadinejad on Sunday.

(Writing by Ross Colvin)