Baghdad - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas arrived in Iraq in an unannounced visit on Sunday, in the first visit of a Palestinian official since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, an Iraqi official source told German Press Agency dpa.

Abbas had been scheduled to visit Iraq on March 28, but his visit was canceled for an undisclosed reason.

The source, who asked not to be named, said that Abbas is scheduled to meet with Iraqi president Jalal Talabani and a number of other officials.

Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein had close ties with late Palestinian president and PLO leader Yasser Arafat.

Since the beginning of 2009, Iraq has been the venue for a number of high profile diplomatic visits, including that of French president Nicolas Sarkozy, Turkish president Abdullah Gul, as well as Arab League chief Amr Mussa. dpa