Fugitive Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi arrived in Qatar on Sunday on what the Gulf nation's state news agency called an "official visit."

The unexpected visit marks al-Hashemi's first foreign trip since he fled to Iraq's semiautonomous Kurdish region to avoid an arrest warrant issued in December.

Al-Hashemi is Iraq's highest-ranking Sunni official. Iraqi officials accuse him of running death squads against Shiite pilgrims, government officials and security forces. He denies the charges, which he says are politically motivated.

Qatar has protested what it says is Baghdad's sidelining of Iraq's Sunni minority.

Iraq's Interior Ministry last month demanded that Kurdish leaders arrest al-Hashemi before he could flee the country. The semiautonomous Kurdish region has its own security forces, which means al-Hashemi is effectively out of reach from police controlled by the central government in Baghdad.

Al-Hashemi arrived in the capital Doha and will stay for several days, the government-run Qatar News Agency said. He was greeted on arrival by the minister of state, Sheik Hamad bin Nasser bin Jassim Al Thani, a member of Qatar's ruling family.

Al-Hashemi's office said he plans to meet with Qatar's emir and the prime minister during the visit, which is expected to last several days. He plans to visit additional, unnamed countries during the trip before returning to Iraq's Kurdish region, his statement said.