Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi Saturday met with the Kurdistan Regional Government Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani for the first time since the controversial independence referendum last year, Xinhua reported quting Kurdish media.

Abadi received Barzani, who was accompanied by his deputy Qubad Talabani and Fuad Hussein, head of the regional presidency office, the Kurdish Rudaw Media Network said in a brief report.

The meeting is the first such kind between the two side, as tensions have been running high between Baghdad and Kurdistan's regional capital Erbil after the Kurds held the referendum on the independence of the Kurdistan region and disputed areas on Sept. 25, 2017.