The young Iraqi girl in a white dress clutched a bouquet of flowers as she waited with a small boy in a smart suit to greet President Ahmadinejad of Iran, who began an historic visit to Iraq yesterday.

Around them the sense of occasion at the Baghdad residence of Jalal Talabani, the Iraqi President, was markedly different to any visit to the country by a British or American leader since the invasion.

A red-coated military band held final rehearsals outside the palace, once owned by one of Saddam Hussein’s sons, while a guard of honour stood to attention, rifles poised, and senior ministers assembled along a rarely seen red carpet.

Preceded by a motorcade of Iranian officials, Mr Ahmadinejad swept into view in a black BMW. Stepping out of his car and into the history books, he became the first Iranian leader to visit Iraq since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

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Mr Ahmadinejad is also the first regional leader to visit since the former regime fell, underlining Iran’s growing influence in a country that it fought for eight years in the 1980s in a war in which one million people died.

Greeted by Mr Talabani, the two Presidents kissed four times while the band struck up both countries’ national anthems followed by a selection of old British marching songs — a hangover from the Saddam era.

Mr Ahmadinejad’s two-day tour is expected to produce a series of deals between Baghdad and Tehran but there is noticeably no contact with the US, a long-time adversary of Iran. The Iranian leader did address a reception of European Union ambassadors to Baghdad, with Britain represented by its chargé d’affaires because Christopher Prentice, the British Ambassador, was out of the country.

Iran blames the US for the chaos that has gripped Iraq for the past five years and wants US troops to leave. Washington in turn accuses Tehran of arming Shia militias in the country who kill American soldiers.

Mr Ahmadinejad rejected such allegations. “We tell Mr Bush that accusing others will increase the problems of America in the region,” he said after a meeting in the US-protected Green Zone with Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister. “The Iraqi people do not like America,” he added.

Ironically, the US-led invasion to topple Saddam, a Sunni Arab, has facilitated the thawing of relations between Baghdad and Tehran. Iraq’s Shia-led Government, despite its US backing, is more of a natural partner for Shia-dominated Iran than Saddam. Many of the new Iraqi leaders, including Mr al-Maliki, sought refuge in the Islamic Republic to escape the former regime.

Evidence of a proficiency in Farsi was clear at an earlier news conference after a meeting with Mr Talabani at his compound about a mile outside the green zone, where Mr Ahmadinejad also spent the night.

Several Iraqi ministers listening to the Iranian President speak in his mother tongue laughed at the odd joke before it was translated into Arabic. Mr Talabani, a Kurd, even corrected the official interpreter.

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