US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is in Bahrain for a meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council.
Ms Rice is expected to repeat her calls for Arab states to open full diplomatic ties with Baghdad to counter Iranian influence in the region.
Washington has been calling for this for some time as well as help to reduce Iraq's debt.
From Bahrain she will travel on to Kuwait for talks with countries that neighbour Iraq. Live - Bahrain Grand Prix ...
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Officials from Iran and Syria are expected at the discussions in Kuwait although there are no plans for the secretary of state to meet them.
'Political centre'
On Sunday Ms Rice made an unannounced visit to the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.
Ms Rice said she saw a "coalescing of a centre in Iraqi politics" and that leaders of the various Iraqi factions were more united than ever.
She arrived in the city a day after Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr threatened to wage "open war" on Iraq's government.
He urged them to halt operations against his supporters. But clashes between his forces and Iraqi-led coalition troops are continuing.
Ms Rice said Sunnis, Kurds and Shias have been working together better than at any time before, the BBC's correspondent Crispin Thorold said from Baghdad.
Condoleezza Rice praised the security efforts against the Shia militias.
In violence on Sunday, at least six people were reported to have been killed and 15 wounded in the latest clashes in the Sadr City area of Baghdad - the site of frequent confrontations between Shia fighters and Iraqi and coalition forces.
(BBC)
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