Greece will build a monument honoring the Macedonian warrior-king Alexander the Great at an ancient battlefield in southern Iraq.

Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis said the agreement was reached at the talks in Athens with Iraqi FM Hoshyar Zebari.

Zebari said the battlefield monument would underline the interaction of civilizations in the region.

Paying an honor to the great conquest "must symbolize the mutual influence between the two peoples," the Greek and the Iraqi ones, Bakoyannis said.

The monument will be built at the locality bearing the ancient name of Gaugamela, situated near the city of Mosul. At the time - 331 B.C. - Iraq was part of the Persian Empire, which stretched throughout most of the Middle East. 25-year-old Alexander won a crushing victory over a Persian army and declared himself Emperor of Asia. //01.27.09  //MINA