London - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki will appeal to the international business community on Thursday for greater trade and investment in his country, at a major investors' conference in London.

Al-Maliki, at the head of a cabinet-level Iraqi delegation including oil minister Hussein al-Shahristani, is to meet first with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in the morning, when a partnership agreement between the two countries is expected to be announced.

Baghdad - Iraqi Prime Minster Nuri al-Maliki is expected in London on Wednesday, the latest stop in his tour of Europe to drum up investment in his country, local media reported. The Iraqi premier, who is traveling at the head of high-level delegation of Iraqi ministers and senior officials, is expected to sign a memorandum of understanding with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to strengthen Iraqi-British cooperation in a number fields, Baghdad's daily al-Sabah reported on Tuesday.

Baghdad - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Monday blamed a recent series of deadly bombings in Baghdad on cells of the Baath Party. Over the course of three days last week, eight car bombs struck Shiite districts of Baghdad, killing at least 51 people. The Baath Party, led by late dictator Saddam Hussein, was removed from power in Iraq in 2003 by the US-led invasion.

Moscow- Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Friday in a meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin requested greater investment by Russian firms in Iraq. According to the Interfax news agency, Putin agreed to help in the building of a "strong and independent Iraq."

In the first visit by an Iraqi prime minister to Moscow since the overthrow of the Saddam Hussein dictatorship, al-Maliki is also expected to visit Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

Arbil, Iraq - A Kurdish parliamentarian on Monday charged that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's description of Iraq as an Arab country was unconstitutional.

Al-Maliki told Arab leaders gathered in Doha, Qatar for the 21st Arab League summit that all Iraqis, regardless of their ethnicity or religion, were agreed that Iraq was an Arab country.

"Al-Maliki's statement ran contrary to the Iraqi constitution," Saad al-Barazanji, deputy head of the Kurdistani Alliance parliamentary bloc, told the Kurdish AKA news agency on Monday.