Outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair arrived in Baghdad for an unannounced visit on Saturday and expected to meet Iraqi leaders, an Iraqi official said.

"Blair will meet Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and the Kurdish president Jalal Talabani," an official from Maliki's office, who spoke anonymously, told Xinhua.

The official could not say when the meetings will take place, but confirmed that Blair has landed in the heavily fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad, which houses the U.S. and British embassies along with the Iraqi government offices.

Blair's seventh visit to Iraq, since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, was not announced in advanced for security reasons and is the final visit for the British premier before he steps down from his office late in June.

Source: Xinhua