Egypt's foreign minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit, left, answers a question as his Iraqi counterpart Hoshyar Zebari looks on during a press conference in Baghdad, 5 Oct. 2008

Egypt has sent its foreign minister to Iraq for the first time in nearly two decades to expand relations between the countries.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit met his Iraqi counterpart, Hoshyar Zebari, and visited locations for an Egyptian embassy while in Baghdad Sunday.

Officials say the two sides discussed the possibility of Egypt helping Iraq with construction and cooperating in the oil sector.  Sameh Fahmy, Egypt's oil minister, joined the discussions.

No Egyptian foreign minister has visited Iraq since 1990, when Iraqi forces invaded neighboring Kuwait.

Egypt pulled all diplomatic representatives out of Iraq in 2005, after al-Qaida killed Cairo's envoy to Baghdad.

In northern Iraq Sunday, the U.S. military said five militants, three women and three children were killed during a raid on a house in Mosul, where an extremist detonated a suicide vest.

The U.S. military says its soldiers were shot at when they entered the house believed to be holding a suspected terrorist.  The military says the extremist then detonated his suicide vest.

Soldiers later found weapons and explosives in the building.

Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.