On March 3, Ahmadi-Nejad wrapped up his visit with a call on US-led foreign forces to withdraw from Iraq, saying: "People have not seen anything from the foreign presence in this region but more destruction and division. Without the presence of foreign troops, the region will live in peace and brotherhood".

Tehran has repeatedly called for the US troops to withdraw, although Sunni Arabs fear such a pull-out would leave a power vacuum into which the Shi'ite theocracy could expand. While most Arab states have limited their representation in Iraq due to security concerns and mistrust of the Shi'ite-led government, Iran has sent numerous officials and cultivated close ties with Iraqi groups. Thousands of Iranian religious pilgrims flock to Iraq's Shi'ite shrines.

Ahmadi-Nejad said the two governments signed three agreements and seven MoUs on trade and industrial development as part of a visit Iraqi officials said was mainly economic. However, Sunni Arabs say the theocracy has infiltrated police forces and other state organs of state. About 1,000 demonstrators gathered in the Sunni district of 'Athamiya to protest Ahmadi-Nejad's visit, with one placard reading: "Your mortars preceded your visit". Ahmadi-Nejad dismissed the allegations, saying: "American officials talk too much. We don't care to hear their statements, because the Americans are giving statements based on false information".

Speaking in a nearly hour-long news conference at the end of his visit, Ahmadi-Nejad said: "The presence of foreigners in the region has been to the detriment of the nations of the region. It is nothing but a humiliation to the regional nations. Their only achievements are that regional nations further dislike them, it adds to the regional nations' hatred. No one likes them". Pressed by a reporter how he knew the Iraqis did not like the US, he said: "[The] Iraqi people have been anti-colonialist and anti-occupation in the course of their history. If you go to the streets and talk to ordinary Iraqi people, you will be able to realise the true nature of such a claim".

At Baghdad airport, Ahmadi-Nejad on March 2 descended the stairs of his presidential jet smiling and waving. He was greeted with hugs and kisses by top Iraqi officials, including Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, a Kurd. Hundreds of Kurdish peshmerga, considered the most capable of Iraq's forces, were in charge of security as the convoy carrying Ahmadi-Nejad made its way from the airport to Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's residence in the US-protected Green Zone. "I thank God for blessing us with the good fortune to visit Iraq and to meet our dear brothers in oppressed Iraq", Ahmadi-Nejad said in a brief statement after meeting with Talabani. He added: "Visiting Iraq without the dictator [Saddam] is a truly joyous occasion". Later he met with PM Nuri al-Maliki and other leaders.

The FT on March 3 quoted experts in Tehran as saying the theocracy had been playing a complex game which combined backing for the Iraqi government with efforts to undermine the US and ensure the American military exited Iraq under pressure. The tactics have drawn criticism from some of Iran's oldest Iraqi friends - including Shi'ite parties - who had warned repeatedly against using Iraqi territory to settle scores with the US. Iran is specifically accused by the US of offering training and deadly weapons to radical factions of Jaysh al-Mahdi (JaM) militia acting in defiance of the movement's leader Muqtada al-Sadr, who on March 7 announced he was leaving politics and concentrating on his religious education.

US officials allege that IRGC's external arm, the Quds Force, has taken charge of this game of destabilising Iraq systematically. Iran's state TV gave broad coverage to Ahmadi-Nejad's visit, showing off that it had been announced in advance, unlike the trips by other foreign leaders - including the US president - which are kept secret. One of the issues on the agenda in the president's talks was the fate of Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MeK), the armed Iranian opposition group based in Iraq which collaborated with Saddam's Sunni/Ba'thist dictatorship against the Iranian theocracy. Iran has been urging Iraq to expel the group. In a preliminary press conference on March 2, Talabani said the issue "has been discussed earlier and the presence of those as a terrorist organisation is constitutionally not allowed". But the US is using the MeK as a card in its negotiations with Iran, wanting a price which Tehran is considering.

Sa'd al-Hadithi, a Sunni Arab academic at Baghdad University, on March 2 said: "The Iranian intent and vision in Iraq is at cross-purposes with that of the US as long as American troops are in Iraq. The two projects are battling each other in Iraq". But the prominent Iranian journalist opposed to the theocracy and based in London, Amir Taheri, said: "If the US is not there to protect [the Kurds and Shi'ites], they have no choice but to turn to Iran. Iraq's Shi'ites know that without a foreign backer, they will be massacred by Sunni Arabs. And the Kurds fear the Turks".

The famous crossed-swords Processional Way monument in the Green Zone reads: "Iraqis scored heroic epics in defending their lands against the Persian aggression". But Iraqi Kurds and Shi'ites, who lead Iraq today, found a common enemy with Iran in the form of Saddam's dictatorship. Today they see Iran as a potential guarantor of their new power should US troops leave.

As a smiling Ahmadi-Nejad stood by his side, Talabani said: "We reminisced about the joint struggle in the old days against the dictatorship...we both wished for the dictatorship to fall... And here we are welcoming them in Baghdad".

When asked about the significance of the visit, President Bush on March 1 said he did not see it as a blow to US efforts to isolate Iran. But Bush had some advice for what Iraqi leaders should tell Ahmadi-Nejad, saying: "He's a neighbour. And the message needs to be, quit sending in sophisticated equipment that's killing our citizens".

At a press conference after meeting with Maliki, Ahmadi-Nejad responded to Bush's remark: "You can tell Mr. Bush that accusing others will only complicate America's problems in the region. They must come to terms with the realities: the Iraqi people do not like Americans". Maliki hailed Iran's contribution to improved security, saying: "I can honestly say that the Islamic Republic's recent position has been very helpful in bolstering security and stability". He urged Arab states to look at Ahmadi-Nejad's visit as a "model".

Sunni tribal leaders in Anbar and other areas openly condemned Ahmadi-Nejad and the theocracy. Tribal Shaikh Jabbar al-Fahdawi said: "Iran is the No. 1 enemy of Iraq. I would have never let a man like this enter Iraq", accusing Iran of being behind recent attacks on US-funded Awakening Councils (ACs) which are fighting al-Qaeda and other Neo-Salafi militants as well as rogue Shi'ite militias.

Taheri said Ahmadi-Nejad's trip was meant much more for his domestic audience, particularly given the March 14 parliamentary elections in Iran. He added: "Almost all of this is for local Iranian consumption...the Iranian policy now is to bleed the US slowly in Iraq until [President] Bush leaves office and the new US president withdraws from Iraq, then they move in as the big power".

There was little opportunity for Iraqi reporters to question the Iranian president. But in a brief question-and-answer period, one reporter asked Ahmadi-Nejad about the purpose of his visit to Iraq at this time. "There is nothing out of the ordinary when brothers meet, you know how deep our ties are", Ahmadi-Nejad said quickly, adding in Arabic: "You can see it with your own eyes now".