Middle East

Iraq's prime minister calls for debt relief

Article published on the 2008-05-29 Latest update 2008-05-29 14:08 TU

Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki.
(Photo : AFP)

Iraq's prime minister Nuri al-Maliki has called on the international community to forgive his country's debt and end sanctions imposed under former leader Saddam Hussein. As the Iraqi premier made the comments while addressing some 100 delegates in Sweden, two suicide bombings targeted police and security forces in northern Iraq, killing at least 20 people and wounding another 42.

The attacks shattered a recent calm after the US military said violence across the nation had hit a four-year low last week.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon and US Secretary of State Condeleezza Rice on Thursday praised progress being made in Iraq as Baghdad appealed for debt relief at the conference in Stockholm.

Ban said the country could fulfill its "vision of becoming a free, secure, stable and prosperous nation," but cautioned that "the situation remains fragile."

Maliki said that great progress had been made in Iraq towards creating long-term stability and asked world leaders to "end the international sanctions that were imposed on Iraq because of the previous regime and to wipe off debts."

The Iraqi government says it's total debt, excluding interest, is some 140 billion dollars. 10 billion of this is owed to Saudi Arabia and a little less to Kuwait.

Rice said that while Iraq was "making good progress there remain challenges, not everything that needs to be acomplished has been accomplished."

No Arab countries currently have embassies in Iraq, citing security reasons.

Rice has urged the world community and especially Iraq's Arab neighbours to re-establish diplomatic ties with Baghdad.

The Stockholm conference was the first follow-up meeting since the International Compact with Iraq, a five-year peace and economic plan was adopted in Egypt in May 2007.