"The Iraqi president on Friday presented to Sheikh Nasser Sabah al-Ahmed al-Jaber al-Sabah, minister of the diwan (royal court) of the Kuwaiti prince, a Brno rifle that belonged to Saddam Hussein which Talabani recovered after the liberation of Iraq" in 2003, the official said.

Sheikh Nasser last week headed a Kuwaiti delegation visiting the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq where Talabani is from.

The now-executed former Iraqi leader invaded Kuwait in August 1990 but his troops were driven out of the country in January 1991.

The emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, made his first visit to Baghdad to attend the Arab summit on March 29.

Foreign ministry officials in Ankara told Iraqi charges d'affaires Sudat Hidir that remarks by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki who accused Turkey of becoming a "hostile state" in the region, and of meddling in Iraqi affairs were "unacceptable," according to the diplomat who requested anonymity.

The Iraqi envoy was also told that "Turkey opposes any discrimination in Iraq along sectarian or ethnic lines."

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had earlier accused Maliki, a Shiite, of stoking sectarian tensions between Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds and monopolising power.

Maliki fired back, saying such comments "will damage Turkey's interests and makes it a hostile state for all."

Iraq on Sunday had summoned Turkey's ambassador in Baghdad, Yunus Demirer, to protest Erdogan's "unacceptable" remarks.