Lebanon's prime minister traveled to Baghdad on Wednesday in only the third such visit by a top Arab leader since the U.S.-led invasion five and a half years ago.

Fuad Saniora called his one-day trip an opportunity to renew contact after more than a decade of chilly relations between Beirut and Baghdad.

At a news conference alongside Saniora, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said the two countries would sign several agreements soon, including one on Iraq exporting oil to Lebanon. He did not provide details.

The U.S. has encouraged visits to Iraq by moderate Arab leaders to shore up support for Iraq's Shiite-dominated government, and as a counterweight to influence from Iraq's fellow Shiite neighbor, Iran. Saniora is a Sunni Muslim.

Iraq is also eager to improve ties with its Arab neighbors, as part of the government's growing confidence following improvements in security.

Lebanon's parliamentary majority leader, Saad Hariri, visited Iraq last month, followed by Jordan's King Abdullah II, the first Arab head of state to fly to Baghdad since the 2003 war.

It was not immediately clear whether Saniora would also visit the southern city of Najaf to meet Iraq's Shiite spiritual leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

Some figures in Lebanon's powerful Shiite militia Hezbollah have close personal ties with the religious hierarchy in Najaf, and some Lebanese Shiites trace their family origins back to what is now Iraq.

Relations between Lebanon and Iraq soured in the mid-1990s after Iraqi agents killed a dissident in Beirut. But the two maintained embassies in each other's capitals even after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

Also Wednesday, a prominent Sunni leader criticized his son's arrest during a raid in Baghdad. Adnan al-Dulaimi is one of the three top leaders of the largest Sunni Arab bloc in Iraq's parliament.

Al-Dulaimi said U.S. and Iraqi troops arrested his 44-year-old son, Muthanna, late Tuesday at the family's home in western Baghdad. Another son was also detained eight months ago.

Al-Dulaimi told The Associated Press the arrests are "targeting national reconciliation, the political process and democracy in the country." He said Muthanna is not involved in politics, and his arrest was meant to silence his father instead.

The U.S. military said no American troops were involved in the arrest. But the raid could upset the delicate political cooperation between Shiites and Sunnis in parliament.

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Associated Press Writer Sinan Salaheddin in Baghdad contributed to this report.