Sep 17, 2009, 11:28 GMT
Baghdad - US Vice President Joe Biden was meeting with the President of the Autonomous region of Kurdistan Massoud Barzani in Arbil on Thursday, according to media reports.
Biden and Barzani will discuss ways of boosting US-Iraq relations, US-Kurdish relations and relations between Baghdad and Arbil, the director of foreign relations department in Kurdistan, Falah Moustafa, told the Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
Iraqi president Jalal Talabani arrived Thursday in Arbil to meet Biden as well, Aswat al-Iraq added.
Biden arrived in Iraq Tuesday and met with officials including Ayad al-Samarrai, speaker of the parliament and Sunni Vice-President Tariq al-Hashemi.
Violence continued across in Baghdad during Biden's visit. Rockets fell Wednesday night near Baghdad's heavily fortified zone, soon after Biden ended a meeting with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
Police told the German Press Agency dpa that one rocket landed near the Babil Hotel in the neighbourhood of Jabariya, directly across the Tigris river from the Green Zone, wounding two people.
It was the second such attack in as many nights after Biden arrived. The Mujahedin Army insurgent group claimed responsibility, calling the rocket attacks a 'reception' for Biden.
Biden made no reference to Tuesday's rocket attacks, mentioning only a series of blasts that shook Baghdad on August 19 that left at least 95 people dead, more than 1,200 wounded and destroyed much of the ministries of foreign affairs and finance.
On Thursday, Biden told reporters accompanying him that the lack of sectarian reprisals following the August 19 bombing was 'a mark of real maturation' of the Iraqi people and government.
Throughout his meetings on Wednesday, exchanging gifts and joking with Iraqi officials, Biden appeared unfazed by the lethal rocket attacks that had greeted his arrival in Baghdad the night before.
'You can't get rid of me,' Biden joked when meeting Iraqi Vice President Adil Abdel-Mahdi. 'I just keep coming back.'
This is the US vice president's third visit this year to Iraq, following trips in January and July.
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