Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is in Turkey and is having talks with top Turkish officials. Talks are especially focused on Maliki bid to form a government. Indeed seven months have passed since the Iraqi elections but no government has yet been formed.

Maliki met with President Abdullah Gül and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan in Ýstanbul and Ankara. He said that he was in Turkey for a “short but very significant” visit. Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh, accompanying Maliki, said the talks had focused on ways to further improve Turkish-Iraqi relations.

Turkey was the last stop of a tour of the region by Maliki. Indeed he was in Jordan, Iran, Syria and Egypt. Maliki, a Shiite, has recently won crucial support from Iran-backed, anti-US Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, but remains at odds with some Shiite groups and the secular, Sunni-backed al-Iraqiya bloc that won the most votes in the March elections.

Arab nations want Iraqiya to be part of the next government but Iraqiya itself has refused to join if Maliki is prime minister.