French Prime Minister Francois Fillon (file)
The French prime minister is visiting Baghdad on Thursday, with a largedelegation of French political and business leaders, in anotherpositive sign for the war-torn nation. A trip to Kurdistan is also onthe agenda for the French official.

French PrimeMinister Francois Fillon is the first foreign leader to visit Iraqsince US-led forces officially withdrew combat troops from Iraqi citieson June 30.

He told a joint press conference with Iraqi PrimeMinister Nouri al-Maliki that in the wake of the U.S. pullout, Iraq had"now entered a new phase."

Mr. Fillon arrived in the Iraqicapital, Baghdad, with a large delegation of French officials and topFrench business leaders for a short visit. The French prime minister'soffice said several business agreements would be signed during thevisit.

Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki, for his part, urged theFrench government and French firms to invest in Iraq, now that thesecurity situation in the country has improved.

Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki (file photo)He says that ahorizon of cooperation is now open for French firms and they welcometheir presence in Iraq in all fields to help rebuild infrastructure.France, he adds, is an historic partner of Iraq, and Iraq will worktoward strong political and economic ties.

France was a topbusiness partner of Iraq during the long reign of Saddam Hussein,building many roads, bridges, and other infrastructure projects,including Iraq's telecommunications network.

Iraqi DefenseMinistry spokesman, Mohammed al-Askari told a press conference that thecountry's military was aiming to build its forces to meet thechallenges facing it, after the U.S. pullout.

He says "wehave the power to quash any violence, but that we hope that we don'thave to face too many challenges at once." He adds that Iraq is tryingto build its air capabilities, first with helicopters, and eventuallywith fighter jets, to be ready for the final U.S. pullout in 2011.

Baghdadsecurity spokesman, Qassem Mohammed Atta, also told journalists thatIraqi security forces were busy taking all precautions to stopterrorist attacks, now that U.S. troops had handed over most securityresponsibilities to Iraqi forces.

He says that it's necessary toerect barriers to stop terrorist attacks across Baghdad, but that thisis just a temporary step to bring the security situation under control."Once things improve," he adds," we will re-evaluate, before taking stepsto remove all concrete barriers."

Iraq announced, Wednesday, thatthe month of June was the bloodiest in eight months, with an increasein deadly attacks in the lead-up to the withdrawal of U.S. troops.