On a historic visit to Iraq, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad has accused the United States of favouring the emergence of terrorism in the region since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. Following his first day of talks in Baghdad with the Iraqi government, the Iranian leader declared that "six years ago there were no terrorists in the region, but they appeared when foreign forces arrived".

He rejected accusations that his country is arming militias in Iraq: "We want to tell Mr Bush that accusing others will increase the problems of America in the region and will not solve them. The Americans have to accept the region as it is. The Iraqi people do not like America."

In the town of Falluja, some 70 kilometres west of the capital, several hundred Iraqis opposed to Ahmedinejad's visit chanted anti-Iran slogans.

He is the first Iranian president to visit Iraq
since Iran's Islamic revolution in 1979.