Amman  - Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi on Monday wound up a five-day visit to Jordan by voicing opposition to a proposed defence agreement between his country and the United States.

"There is an Iraqi national consensus to reject the draft agreement" which is being discussed by Baghdad and Washington, al- Hashemi said in a speech to the Jordanian Society of Sciences and Culture.

He was responding to questions about a draft agreement that was reportedly reached between the Iraqi government and the United States for regulating the US military presence in Iraq after 2008.

"Iraq will not accept any formula that undermines its sovereignty and runs counter to the Iraqi interests," al-Hashemi, a Sunni leader, said.

Noting the country is "facing dangerous challenges," he said Arab countries "can play an effective role in helping Iraq to come out of its present plight and to forge a national reconciliation there".

During his visit, the Iraqi vice president held talks with King Abdullah II and Prime Minister Nader Dahabi and apparently convinced them to send an ambassador to Baghdad to reopen the Jordanian embassy which was the scene of a fatal bombing in August 2003.

Jordanian Minister of State for Information Affairs and Communication Nasser Judeh said an envoy would be named "in the coming period" but did not set a specific date.

The US administration has been reportedly pressing Jordan and other moderate Arab countries to send envoys to Iraq as a gesture of support for the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. (dpa)