UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan confirmed Saturday the UN support to the Arab League efforts aimed at reconciliation between different Iraqi communities.

"The idea is that reconciliation is absolutely essential in Iraq. I don't think anyone would argue with that," Annan told a joint news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari.

Annan is also expected to meet other Iraqi leaders, including Deputy Prime Minister Rowsh Shaways and former prime minister Iyad Allawi.

The Arab League is due to hold a preparatory meeting for an Iraqi reconciliation conference in Cairo on Nov. 19, an AL official said on Wednesday.

Last week, the UN Security Council unanimously extended the mandate of the US-led multinational forces in Iraq until the end of next year, as requested by Jaafari.

Earlier on Saturday, Annan arrived in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on a surprise visit.

It was Annan's first visit to Iraq since the US-led invasion in March 2003.

Iraq's US-backed government dominated by Shiites and Kurds is battling a mainly Sunni Arab insurgency that has killed thousands of people.

Iraq will hold parliamentary elections on Dec. 15 under the newly approved constitution.

Annan flew into Baghdad from the Jordanian capital of Amman, where he discussed Wednesday's bombings in three hotels in the Jordanian capital, which al-Qaida in Iraq has claimed.

The UN pulled out of Iraq after a bomb at UN headquarters in Baghdad in August 2003 killed 22 people, including envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello.

(Xinhua News Agency November 14, 2005)