BAGHDAD (Updated) - Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit opened Sunday the first Egyptian consulate outside Baghdad in the northern city of Irbil in a one-day visit to Iraq, where he also held talks with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. His visit is the first high-level one by an Egyptian foreign minister to Iraq since the formation of a new government. Nearly 70 per cent of ministerial posts were approved by the Iraqi parliament last week following nine months of political deadlock. "Abul Gheit was keen to be the first to visit Baghdad to congratulate the new government after it was endorsed by the parliament," Egypt's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said. He added that the Egyptian minister's talks with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and other officials focused on Egypt's intention to push for Egyptian investments to Iraq. Egypt had earlier said it planned to open two more consulates, one in Mosul in the north and the other in Basra in the south. A day before his trip to Iraq, Abul Gheit said in Cairo that Egypt would like to see Iraq free of US troops. "We want all of them to leave and we want them to leave Iraq as soon as possible," he said, referring to the 50,000 US troops deployed there. Egypt was staunchly opposed to the US-led invasion of 2003.