BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraqi President Jalal Talabani travelled to the United States on Sunday for a number of weeks of medical tests aimed at helping him to lose weight, his office announced.

"I have no health problems except for being overweight and I intend to treat that," 74-year-old Talabani told a news conference last week, according to the statement.

"I will go to the United States soon for general medical tests to help me to lose weight," the Kurdish veteran leader added.

The portly politician arrived in Sulaimaniyah in northern Iraq's Kurdish autonomous regions on Saturday and met Kurdish officials before leaving for the United States.

In March, Talabani was hospitalized in Jordan for two weeks suffering from what his doctors called fatigue dehydration.

Earlier this week Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, the head of one of Iraq's most powerful Shiite parties, traveled to the United States for medical tests, but his office did not specify what the tests were for.