Turkish planes resumed flights to Iraq on November 24 and were landing at the Baghdad airport, Iraq's Ministry of Transportation said.

Iraqi airliners will begin landing in Istanbul on Friday, officials said.

On November 21, Iraq banned all Turkish flights from landing in the country, including the semiautonomous Kurdish region, as a response to a similar ban last week in Turkey against Iraqi flights.

However, a Turkish government official denied that Ankara blocked Iraqi planes. The official did say that Turkey warned that if Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organization did not pay the US$3 million owed to his country, the country would ban Iraqi aircraft.

Both countries agreed to drop the bans after negotiations.

After years of the US-led war in Iraq, Turkey's flagship carrier Turkish Airlines was one of the first international companies to begin direct flights to Baghdad. Increasingly, Turkey has grown as a major international gateway for commerce and travel to and from its Iraqi neighbor.