Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq     

    BAGHDAD, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Britain's foreign secretary arrived in Baghdad on Thursday and held talks with top Iraqi leaders, a British embassy source said.

    "Mr. David Miliband, the British Foreign Secretary, arrived in Baghdad in an unannounced visit earlier in the day and has met Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, President Jalal Talabani and his Vice President Adel Abdul Mahdi," said Ahmad al-Jaf, spokesman of the British embassy.

    Jaf could not give more details about Miliband's discussions with Iraqi leaders, saying the British embassy would release more information about the visit later.

    Miliband had attended a meeting of Iraq's neighbors in Kuwait on Tuesday, in which Maliki called for greater regional cooperation with Iraq.

    Britain has some 4,000 soldiers stationed in an airbase outside Iraq’s second largest city of Basra, 550 km south of Baghdad.