Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, who is paying a three-day visit to Kuwait, expressed his hope to amend all the mistakes and miseries caused by the Iraqi invasion in 1990 and boost friendly bilateral relations.

He promised on Sunday that his country respects Kuwait's independence and is committed to the UN resolutions related to the invasion reparations and borders demarcation between the two states.

"We believe the ties between Iraq and Kuwait are even stronger than the international resolutions, which we do respect and comply with," Allawi told the state-run Kuwait News Agency.

"We look at Kuwait as a brotherly people and a neighboring country and we do respect its position and do not interfere in its internal issues, and want to build relations and a network of strategic interests between Kuwait and Iraq, and between Iraq and other countries too," he said.

Commenting the 14th anniversary of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on Monday, Allawi described the invasion as a disaster and called for all people, including Iraqis, Kuwaitis and all Arabs, to take a lesson from it.

During Allawi's visit, an agreement has been reached on the war reparations for the damages resulted from the Iraqi invasion on Kuwait in 1990.

Allawi also invited Kuwaiti firms to take part in the reconstruction of Iraq.

All these goodwill initiatives got positive response from the Kuwaiti government.

The Kuwaiti cabinet stressed Sunday there was mutual keenness on fostering cooperation in all fields within the framework of international and mutual agreements and neighborly relations as well as respect of neighbor states' sovereignty.

This, it noted, would boost development in the two states and better steer potential and resources toward more prosperity for the people.

Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah hailed Allawi's visit, saying it opened a new page and put behind all the strife and misery the former Iraqi regime had brought onto both people.

Kuwaiti Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Cabinet and Parliament Affairs Mohammad Deifallah Sharar said the cooperation of the two states corresponds to the nature of the current stage's circumstance and challenge.

Kuwaiti Minister of Oil Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad asserted on Sunday the importance of the visit of Allawi, saying that "both countries can cooperate in all fields of joint concern in accordance with international law."

According to the official, cooperation in the field of energy between Iraq and Kuwait is well advanced. A number of committees have been formed to study joint strategic projects aiming at improving cooperation between the two countries.

The local media also embraced Allawi's visit with open arms.

Al-Qabas daily said that the visit coming two days before the anniversary of the Iraqi invasion has exceptional and symbolic connotations.

Being an attempt by a top Iraqi official, the visit represents a new era in Iraq to remove the impacts of Saddam Hussein's mistake of invading Kuwait, it said.

Analysts however do not believe it is easy to erase the remaining traces of years of mistrust and fear.

No one can claim the ability of completely eliminating the impacts and the accumulations of the previous era at one time, as the former Saddam regime has succeeded in creating a lot of doubts,they said.

Saddam ordered his army to invade Kuwait on Aug. 2, 1990, announcing that Iraq considered Kuwait as its 19th province in the wake of an oil exploitation dispute between the two countries.

Kuwait and Iraq resumed diplomatic ties on June 28, the day when the US-led coalition authority transferred sovereignty to the interim Iraqi government headed by Allawi.

Saddam was toppled by the US-led war in April last year. He was captured in his hometown, Tikrit, last December and is facing seven charges, including war crimes.

Source: Xinhua