German Foreign Minister Visits Baghdad

Steinmeier, who was received at the Baghdad airport by Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari, arrived in Iraq.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier arrived in Baghdad on Tuesday, officials said, in the first visit by a German foreign minister since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003, which Germany opposed.

Steinmeier, who was received at the Baghdad airport by Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari, arrived in Iraq as violence hits its lowest level since the war began. Yet Iraq is still a violent country and appearances by foreign dignitaries remain shrouded in security.

Steinmeier's trip follows a visit last week by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and signals that another European country that opposed the invasion to topple Saddam Hussein is deepening ties with Iraq.

The visits underscore a shift in European engagement in Iraq with new U.S. President Barack Obama in the White House and plans to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of 2011.

Last July, Michael Glos, the economy minister at the time, became the first German cabinet minister to visit Iraq since the invasion. Germany and Iraq have since signed a bilateral investment agreement aimed at bolstering ties between Europe's largest economy and oil-rich Iraq.