Baghdad visit: Tayyip Erdogan
Iraq and Turkey set for gas deal
Turkey and Iraq are poised to sign an agreement which will see Iraqi natural gas flow to Europe via Turkey, as the two neighbours look to expand energy and security ties, Turkish officials said.
Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and a government delegation are set to meete Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and other government officials in Baghdad later today, a Reuters report said.
Turkish officials said the two countries also planned to sign deals extending an agreement over an Iraq-Turkey oil pipeline as well as an accord to complete new power lines and boost the capacity of existing cross-border lines.
Erdogan said before his departure to Baghdad that he also expected to hold talks on boosting co-operation in the fight against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) guerrilla group, which uses bases in northern Iraq to launch attacks on south-east Turkey.
About 40,000 people have been killed in Turkey since the PKK took up arms to carve out an ethnic homeland in south-eastern Turkey. Turkey and Iraq have increased co-operation in the fight against the PKK.
It was not immediately clear whether the gas intended for export to Europe would pass through the planned €7.9 billion ($11.7 billion) Nabucco pipeline project, which has been conceived to cut Europe's dependence on Russian gas.
Iraqi's Maliki has said that Iraq could supply some 15 billion cubic metres of gas through the Nabucco, Reuters said.