Iraqi prime minister in Erbil for meeting with Council of Ministers

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki participates in a meeting of the Council of Ministers to address the outstanding problems the central government in Baghdad has with Erbil.

Mr al-Maliki, in a speech to the Council of Ministers, which was held with the addition of the Prime Ministerof the Kurdistan Regional Government Nechirvan Barzani and his Deputy Emad Ahmed, "It’s a pleasure to hold a cabinet meeting in the Erbil governorate,” adding that this meeting will be a “step on the road to resolving outstanding problems which sometimes swell and sometimes outside the framework of control.”

The Iraqi prime minister said there was a "firm determination” that the two sides reach solutions to all outstanding issues, where he warned in his speech of "sectarian storm and fighting" crippling the region, and calling for national reconciliation.