Iraq wants the world to deliver promised aid faster to help combat instability, while acknowledging that it must clean up its own act by curbing “disastrous” corruption, Iraqi officials said this week. “Iraq has massive needs as far as basic services are concerned, including health, security and other economic infrastructure,” Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said on the eve of a conference hosted by Washington and the European Union.

“We hope this conference will focus energies and increase the potential for aid,” he told Reuters before going into talks with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who had just arrived from a tour of the Middle East for the conference. The idea of the meeting came after President Bush visited Brussels in February, when France and Germany, opponents of the US-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein in 2003, promised help to train Iraqi security forces.

Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari told a meeting of NATO ambassadors that Baghdad was committed to a mid-August deadline for drafting a constitution, which must then be approved by a referendum in October before new elections in December.“We believe this will have an impact on the security situation,” he said, adding that the inclusion of 15 Sunni Arabs in the drafting committee meant it represented all Iraqis.

US officials say they will prod Shi’ite and Kurdish leaders who dominate the transitional government to share more power with minority Sunni Arabs, who mostly boycotted January 30 elections – and who also form the core of the insurgency. Relentless violence in Iraq has not abated even though Iraqi authorities have met several transition deadlines, including the elections in which millions of Iraqis defied insurgents to vote.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said all segments of Iraqi society should have a say in the constitution. “If we can bring them all in, and make it as inclusive as possible, the chances are that the result will be accepted,” he told reporters.

Zebari said Iraqi forces could fill the gap if Washington began significantly reducing its 135,000 troops in Iraq next year, as a senior US military commander said was possible.“If there was some (US) withdrawal in early 2006, that would be understandable because by then the capacity of our military forces would be greater,” Zebari said.The US exit strategy for Iraq, where more than 1,720 US troops have died, is to foster legitimate political institutions, while training Iraqi security forces.

<B>Troop cuts</B>

However, some US officers say they doubt the Iraqi forces will be able to cope with the insurgency any time soon. Finance Minister Ali Allawi urged the world to give more aid to Iraq and speed up delivery of what it had already pledged.“There are signs the United States and Europe are resolving their differences over Iraq,” he told Reuters.

“We look forward to more EU funds and help from countries that did not participate originally,” Allawi said. “We are also hoping Gulf countries would contribute more to project funding after helping us on the trade financing side.” Saudi Arabia and Kuwait will be among 80 countries represented at the conference on Wednesday.

Allawi said the government would convene a donors’ meeting in Amman next month to accelerate disbursement of billions of dollars of aid pledged in 2003 by European and other countries.

He said Iraq could now handle aid flows better because it was tackling corruption, which Deputy Parliament Speaker Hussain al-Shahristani said had reached “disastrous proportions.” Little of the $15 billion in non-US aid pledges made at that time has been spent because of violence, disagreements among donors and graft in Iraq, Iraqi officials say. The United States allocated more than $18 billion, but progress on American-funded projects in Iraq has been also slow.

Iraq accumulated $120 billion of debt during the Saddam era, mostly to fund the 1980-1988 war with Iran, although tens of billions of dollars of this debt was forgiven last year.The conference is likely to back Iraq’s quest for more debt relief, but Rice said she expected no immediate deal on this.“The donors’ conference could conceivably deal with something like that more directly,” she told reporters.

<B>Khaled YACOUB OWEIS</B>

SUPPORT

EU and US rally help for Iraq

■ Washington and the European Union joined forces yesterday to rally international help for Iraq at a conference that will press Baghdad to ensure minority Sunnis play a full role in its future. Sunni Arabs, who make up about 20 percent of Iraq’s 26 million population, mostly boycotted January 30 elections and form the core of an insurgency. The Shi’ite Muslim majority and Kurds dominate the transitional government in Baghdad.

“Iraqis must find it within themselves to reach out to one another and address issues on which they may differ,” said UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, according to an advance copy of his speech to a meeting attended by representatives of some 80 nations. “Without an inclusive process, security initiatives are unlikely to yield enduring results,” Annan added, echoing political analysts who say including more Sunni Arabs in decision-making could help defuse the insurgency.

The Shi’ite-led panel charged with drafting a constitution for Iraq by August 15 agreed last week to raise Sunni numbers in the body, but US and EU officials will press Iraqi officials at the conference for further reassurances on the Sunni role. “The international community is saying to the Iraqis that they should be as inclusive as possible, particularly of the Sunni community,” US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters on the eve of the conference. The conference, a result of US President George W. Bush’s trip to Europe in February to mend fences two years after the Iraq war sparked rifts, will also urge Baghdad to stay on track to hold fresh elections by the end of the year, officials say. Instead it will offer a show of world support for Iraq and give Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari a platform to pitch for specific help in reconstruction and reform. “That is difficult while you have violence because private investment, private companies have security problems,” said Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moller, noting Western efforts to train Iraqi forces to take over more security tasks. The final communique at the conference will call on Iraq’s major creditors to give generous debt relief, said an EU diplomat, who declined to be named. It would also pledge support to Baghdad’s efforts to join bodies such as the World Trade Organisation, the diplomat said. Leading creditors Saudi Arabia and Kuwait will be among 80 countries represented at the meeting, yet conference organisers are looking more for statements of willingness to consider relief rather than any specific accords. Iraq accumulated $120 billion of debt during Saddam’s era, mostly to fund a 1980-1988 war with Iran, although tens of billons of dollars were forgiven last year.