BAGHDAD, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani on Wednesday opened the third edition of the Iraq International Book Fair that has attracted 350 Iraqi and foreign publishing houses from 20 countries.

During a tour of exhibition halls of the book fair in Baghdad that will run until Nov. 17, al-Sudani said cultural activities have a pivotal role in spreading knowledge, highlighting his govenment support for cultural initiatives that contribute to the exchange of ideas, according to a statement issued by the prime minister's office.

Ahmed al-Saeed, executive director of the Cairo-based Wisdom House for Culture Group, said this is his group's first participation in the Iraq International Book Fair and that it is working to build bridges of cultural communication between China and Arab countries.

"We know that the Iraqi people have many friendly relations with China and are interested in learning about Chinese culture, so we brought about 1,000 titles of books translated from Chinese into Arabic," al-Saeed told Xinhua.