An Iraqi Kurdish leader, Massoud Barzani, is visiting the capital of Damascus for talks with Syrian officials, his Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) said on Monday.
Ghazi Zibari, the KDP representative in Syria, said Barzani arrived late Saturday.
The KDP shares control of northern Iraq with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, whose leader Jalal Talabani visited Damascus in early November and met with several officials, AFP said.
A main aim of his mission was to ease Syrian concerns over the possible emergence of a Kurdish state in the northern part of Iraq in the event of a US military strike to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
Syria has its own Kurdish minority estimated to number nearly two million people. (Albawaba.com)