Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki will pay an official visit to Russia in the first half of April, Iraqi Deputy Foreign Minister Abdul Karim Hashim said in Baghdad on Sunday.

“Most probably al-Maliki will visit Moscow in the first half of April, at the invitation of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin,” he said. That would be the first Russian visit of al-Maliki.

Early this year the Iraqi premier urged Russian companies to invest in Iraq. “The presence of Russian companies in Iraq is very important for us. We invite them to take part in the reconstruction of the national oil sector,” he said then after a meeting with Federation Council First Vice-Speaker Alexander Torshin.

Al-Maliki will be the second Iraqi premier received in Moscow after the end of the Saddam Hussein regime (2003). Back in 2004 Moscow welcomed then Iraqi premier Ayad Allawi.