Germany welcomed Iraq's election as an important step for the country to establish democracy, said a statement issued by the German government on Monday.

"The election marks an important stage on the road to building democratic structures in Iraq," the statement said.

"The reported lively participation above all in the Kurdish and Shiite areas is to be greeted as an expression of the firm determination of the majority of Iraqis to take the fate and future of their country in their own hands," said the statement.

Berlin believed that all ethnic and religious groups of the country should be associated with the political process now.

It needs "to integrate fully all the country's ethnic and religious groups into the further political process in the post-election phase," noted the statement.