Baghdad, May 9 (IANS): Iraq and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) confirmed their willingness to strengthen partnership in combating the Islamic State (IS).

A statement by his office on Friday said Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi received a phone call from NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who congratulated al-Kadhimi for taking office after gaining the confidence of the Iraqi parliament, Xinhua news agency reported.

"Stoltenberg stressed NATO's keenness to strengthen partnership with Iraq in fighting terrorism through the training mission operating in Iraq, asserting the need for the international community to cooperate with Iraq to meet the challenges of terrorism," the statement said.

For his part, al-Kadhimi emphasized that the Iraqi government attaches great importance to the partnership with NATO, the statement added.

Al-Kadhimi also extended an invitation to Stoltenberg to visit Baghdad as soon as possible with his team to discuss ways to raise the level of joint action, especially in the field of training and support to the security forces, according to the statement.

The call came after al-Kadhimi was sworn in late on Wednesday as the new prime minister in Iraq, following the approval of the parliament on most of his cabinet members.

The NATO mission in Iraq is providing training and advice to Iraqi forces, as well as providing them with the weapons and ammunition they need in the fight against IS militants.