Iraqi President Jalal Talabani will visit Syria on Sunday for talks with Syrian leaders, an adviser for Talabani told Xinhua on Saturday.

"Talabani will lead a high-level delegation to the neighboring country and will meet with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad," Hiwa Uthman from Talabani's Office said.

Uthman said that the president will sign agreements with the Syrian government concerning security and trade cooperation between the two countries.

The announcement of Talabani's visit came two days after U.S. President George W. Bush declared his new Iraq strategy, promising to take more aggressive steps to curb what he described as Iranian and Syrian help to those attacking Iraqi and U.S. troops.

However, Bush refused to engage either country diplomatically, despite the fact that many U.S. allies and the independent Iraq Study Group urged him to do so.

Source: Xinhua