The United Arab Emirates will appoint an ambassador to Iraq in the coming days, making it the first Arab country to restore a full diplomatic mission in Baghdad since the 2003 invasion.

The move, announced today, will be welcome news for the United States, which has been urging Iraq’s neighbours to rebuild relations with the war-weary country. Security fears and a lack of trust in the Shia-led Iraqi Government, however, have prompted many of the region’s Sunni-led states to hold back, keeping at most a diplomatic office in the Iraqi capital. Only Iran and Turkey have ambassadors.

Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE Foreign Minister, travelled to Baghdad to make the announcement.

“We will hold talks to name the ambassador in the coming few days,” he said. “We also hope that as soon as possible — and I am talking here about a few weeks — we will see an active Emirates Embassy in Baghdad.”

The UAE withdrew its ambassador to Iraq following the downfall of Saddam Hussein’s regime, after one of its diplomats was kidnapped and later released.

Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister, applauded the decision to return, saying in a statement that he welcomed the country’s “efforts to enhance diplomatic Arab representation in Iraq”.

Kuwait has said that it is mulling possible sites for an embassy in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone. The country withdrew its ambassador from Iraq when Saddam invaded in 1990, sparking the first Gulf War.

Saudi Arabia said last year that it would open a Baghdad Embassy “soon”. However the country does not feel that the security conditions are right yet.

In other news a Georgian soldier was killed yesterday when his checkpoint in Iraq's Diyala province came under fire, the Georgian Defence Ministry said.

A US soldier was also shot dead during a patrol south of Baghdad yesterday, the military said today. The death raises to 4,091 the number of US troops killed since the invasion.

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