India, Iraq hold wide-ranging discussions

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held discussions with his visiting Iraqi counterpart Nouri Al-Maliki and the two leaders agreed to cooperate in a range of areas including trade, energy, health, education and agrciculture, a joint statement said Friday.

The Iraqi prime minister, on his first visit to India Aug 22-25, is accompanied by a high-level delegation comprising ministers, officials and business leaders.

"The two prime ministers held wide-ranging discussions... They exchanged views on bilateral, regional and multilateral issues of mutual interest and reached a broad consensus. The discussions enabled better understanding and appreciation of each other's concerns and perspectives and helped in forging closer understanding at the highest political level," the joint statement said.

The two sides reached common understanding to further diversify their trade basket and signed pacts on key areas of mutual interest such as energy security, agriculture and food security, water resource management, education, infrastructure development, pharmaceuticals and medicare, information technology and low-cost housing, it said.