Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah al- Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah and Lebanese President Michel Suleiman arrived in Baghdad Thursday to participate in the Arab League (AL) summit in the Iraqi capital.

The two leaders were separately received at the Baghdad airport by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and would attend the opening session of the summit later Thursday.

Observers here describe Sheikh Sabah's visit to Baghdad as historic since it is the first time for the Kuwaiti emir to visit Iraq after its invasion to Kuwait in 1990, reflecting improvement in the relations between the two countries.

In mid March, Maliki paid a visit to Kuwait and the two sides agreed to resolve outstanding issues of reparations for the invasion, the location of Kuwait's controversial huge port of Mubarak on the joint navigation channel to the Gulf, in addition to ending the UN sanctions known as Chapter 7 sanctions imposed on Iraq after the 1990 invasion.

As the host of the AL summit, Iraq is receiving Arab leaders and other high-level Arab and international officials for summit scheduled on Thursday.

Iraq sees the summit as a significant milestone in its history that would lead the country to play a powerful and positive role in the Arab world.