Baghdad - Iraqi President Jalal Talabani underwent an operation on his heart valve in the US, the Iraqi news agency Aswat al-Iraq reported late on Thursday, citing the president's office in Baghdad.

The 74-year-old president had been treated in a hospital in Rochester in the US state of Minnesota. He had been released from hospital but was still recovering in the US, the report said.

Talabani, an ethnic Kurd, heads the three-people Iraqi presidency. (dpa)