"Legions of unemployed youths, millions of IDPs (internally displaced people) in refugee camps, poverty and conflict are the incubators for terrorism, extremism and... for immigrants fleeing our fertile and rich countries knocking on the doors of Europe," Salih told the MED Dialogue conference in Rome.

"This is an Iraqi interest, this is I daresay a Middle East interest but it is also a European interest and a global interest," he warned.

Iraq has been ravaged by sanctions and conflict for decades, Salih said, noting that his country has "historically been the epicentre of change" in the region, a "precursor for regional order, or disorder."

"We do not have to be condemned to this cycle of violence," Salih said, calling for a regional order based on security and rooted in economic development.