Elyawer visits France, Germany, Italy and Belgium

An Arab diplomatic source in Paris said he expected that the Iraqi President Ghazi Elyawer will visit Paris on Sunday, his first station in a European tour which will lead him also to Germany, Italy and Brussels.

The source added that Elyawer will visit Paris on the fifth through 8th of September, at the invitation of President Jacque Chirac and will be accompanied by seven ministers who currently assume economic, rather than political positions. The new Iraqi ambassador Muwaffaq al-Hammoud will be with the Iraqi delegation. He will submit his credentials shortly to the French authorities.

On September 8-10 Elyawer will head to Berlin where he will be meeting with the German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and the Iraqi President will spend four days between September 10- 14 in Rome at the invitation of the Italian prime minister Silvio Berlyskony.

Elyawer ends his tour in Brussels where he will be holding talks with the higher representative of the foreign policy of the European Union, Javier Solana, and with the chairman of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, or his successor Jose Manuel Barozo, according to a diplomatic source. He will return back to Baghdad on September 16th.