Yet, the visit was met with a mix of reservation and outright protest from Iraq's Sunni Arabs, who watch nervously Iran's growing political and economic clout in their country.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani played the good host by avoiding any public mention of what could perturb the visit.

Despite his declared objection to a contentious Algiers border treaty, Talabani declined to comment on the border dispute, which was the main cause of the eight-year-long Iran-Iraq war.

Following talks with Ahmadinejad, Talabani instead highlighted what he termed key political and economic agreements.

In January, Talabani said the border agreement was void, sparking alarm in Tehran. The treaty was signed in 1975 by the then vice- president Saddam Hussein and the ousted Shah of Iran.

Both countries signed on February 23 a deal to revive the implementation of the treaty, under which Iraq ceded some oil-rich border areas along the Shatt-al-Arab waterway.

In return, the Shah pledged to stop supporting Iraq's Kurdish rebel groups, of which Talabani was an active member.

The border treaty was not discussed Sunday, Talabani said. His Sunni Arab Vice-President, Tariq al-Hashimi, however, did not hide his nationalist position towards Iran.

'We hope we can put an end to troubled relations between both countries. As for normalizing ties, this should be on the basis of respect of sovereignty and non-interference,' al-Hashimi said in a statement published on the website of his Iraqi Islamic Party.

Both countries should start simultaneous negotiations over a number of unsettled, complex issues, al-Hashimi said.

Anti-Tehran sentiment ran high in Sunni-dominated Fallujah in western Iraq where protestors burnt Iran's flag and announced a boycott of its goods, the Voices of Iraq news agency (VOI) reported Sunday.

'The protest is a message to Iran from the Iraqi people, expressing our indignation towards Iran's conduct. It is backing and training militias that killed hundreds of Iraqis,' Sabah al-Ilwany, a senior member of the Fallujah Assembly Party, told VOI.

A rally bringing together Sunni Arab tribal and political leaders in the multi-ethnic city of Kirkuk voiced strong opposition to the visit.

'We have seen today a visit by [a president] of a state with hands tarnished by the blood of innocent people in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine,' Ahmed al-Ubaydi, the leader of the Iraqi Kirkuk Front, told the congregation.

Al-Ubaydi was referring to Iran's growing influence in the region, which causes unease in many Sunni-dominated Arab countries.

Tribes in Shiite-dominated southern Iraq joined those criticizing Ahmadinejad's visit.

A member of the association of southern Iraqi clans, Hasan al- Lami, called for the border with Iran to be redrawn and an end to its 'oil theft.'

Iran has denied allegations recently made by Iraqi oil officials that it has seized oil wells on its border with the southern Iraqi provinces of Basra and Missan. -DPA