British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw made an unannounced trip to Iraq, where he held meetings with senior British and Iraqi officials in the northern city of Kirkuk before travelling to Kurdistan.
Travelling from the Jordanian capital of Amman, Straw met Britain's ambassador to Iraq, Edward Chaplin, in Kirkuk as well as members of the provincial council before flying further north to the resort of Lake Dokhan in Kurdistan, said British embassy spokeswoman Victoria Whitford.
There, Straw met Jalal Talabani, leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
Whitford said that for security reasons she was unable to disclose further elements about the trip, but added that it had nothing to do with an ongoing crisis surrounding Ken Bigley, a British engineer held hostage in Iraq and threatened with beheading by Islamists. (Albawaba.com)
© 2004 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
