Baghdad - Turkish President Abdullah Gul arrived in Baghdad Monday at the beginning of a two-day visit, the first by a Turkish head of state to the country in 33 years.

Gul will discuss "issues of mutual concern" and "means of strengthening bilateral relations" in meetings with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Nasir al-Ani, head of the Iraqi president's office, said in a press release on Monday.

In a December visit to Ankara, al-Maliki pledged that Iraq would cooperate more closely with Turkey in cracking down on the armed Kurdish separatist group the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK).

Last week, Talabani, who is himself an Iraqi Kurd, told the Turkish daily Sabah that he expected the PKK to "follow the wishes of all Kurdish parties" and renounce violence soon.

Iraqi and Turkish officials have also been drawing closer together on energy and water policy in recent weeks.

On March 16, Talabani traveled to Istanbul to attend the fifth World Water Forum, a meeting of thousands of engineers, politicians and environmentalists from around the world.

Iraq and Syria have repeatedly asked Turkey to allow more water from the Euphrates and Dijla rivers to flow over Turkish dams and across the borders. In 1990, Turkey cut off the flow of water from the Tigris and the Euphrates to Iraq and Syria for weeks.

But at last week's meeting in Istanbul, Turkish, Iraqi and Syrian officials presented their work together on a joint water institute as a model of international cooperation on water resources.

The institute is due to release a report suggesting water projects the countries can undertake together by mid-April. (dpa)