Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Germany's foreign minister, met Iraqi leaders and boosted economic links during a surprise visit on Tuesday, as a key opponent of the US-led invasion joined rebuilding efforts, AFP reported.
Steinmeier, on the first visit to Baghdad by a German foreign minister in two decades, held talks with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, President Jalal Talabani and his Iraqi counterpart Hoshyar Zebari.
He travelled to Baghdad saying Berlin wanted to help in the reconstruction of the war-battered but oil-rich country.
"Iraq wants to develop its historic relations with Germany ... Today we discussed its support for Iraq, the political process and reconstruction," Zebari said at a joint media conference with Steinmeier.
Maliki, in a statement, issued an invitation for German companies to do business in Iraq through the Arab-German chambers of commerce.
The two countries signed several memorandums of understanding, with Maliki proposing Germany's cooperation in the sectors of railways, electricity, health and building hospitals, as well as in the car industry.
Steinmeier also announced the opening in the Iraqi capital of offices of the major German companies Siemens and Mercedes-Benz, plus plans to open a German-Iraqi university.
In Frankfurt, the German car maker Daimler, parent company of Mercedes, announced the inauguration of the office in Iraq as a first step to returning to what was once a lucrative market for the brand.
Daimler wants to sell heavy trucks and buses in Iraq, and it has also raised the possibility of building a parts factory for heavy vehicles in the country.
As well as setting up a German business office in Baghdad, Berlin would offer support for efforts to protect Iraq's archaeological wealth, Steinmeier said.
The trip came in the footsteps of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who last week made the first visit to post-Saddam Iraq by a European leader of a state which refused to join Britain in the US-led military coalition.
"The Iraqi government has achieved important successes in stabilising the country in recent months," Steinmeier told reporters before leaving for Iraq, where his movements were under tight security despite lower levels of violence.
"Germany wants to assist Iraq in reconstruction," said Steinmeier, who was accompanied by a business delegation and was to travel on to Arbil, capital of the Kurdish region in north Iraq, to open a German consulate on Wednesday.
In Berlin, the economy ministry announced plans also to open an economic information office in Arbil to assist German firms.
Maliki travelled to Germany last July shortly after then trade minister Michael Glos visited Iraq and an agreement was signed to protect the two countries' investments.
Like France, Germany opposed the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein's regime. Both were accused of opposing the invasion because of their lucrative trade deal with Saddam's Iraq.
Steinmeier, whose country became an economic powerhouse after emerging from the ashes of World War II under the aegis of the United States, became the first German foreign minister to visit Baghdad since 1987.
Maliki, in an interview with Germany's mass-circulation Bild newspaper, invited German companies to invest in the new Iraq, regardless of their stand on the US-led invasion.
In December, Iraq signed a two-billion-dollar contract with Siemens to build 16 electricity units in five plants with a total capacity of 3,200 megawatts to be installed across the country by spring 2010.
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