US-controlled Iraq, struggling to restore security, energy and water, told the world's leading financiers yesterday it would throw its economy open to foreign investors in every industry but oil, writes Jack Fairweather in Baghdad.
Everything from power stations to banks will be open to bidding under sweeping reforms designed to kickstart Iraq's economy that had been kept under tight control by Saddam Hussein's regime.
Speaking at the annual meeting of the International Monetary fund and World Bank in Dubai, interim Finance Minister Kamel al-Keylani, said: "The measures will be implemented in the near future and represent important steps in advancing Iraq's reconstruction effort."
Iraq needs an estimated $90 billion of investment, the bill for which has so far been largely footed by US government spending.
Although hailed by Iraq's administration as a major step in the rebuilding process, the announcement will intensify feelings in the Arab world that US military action in Iraq was motivated by economic considerations.
The country's oil reserves remain in Iraqi hands - the control of which was presented by some as the only reason for ousting Saddam - but American companies have so far been the largest recipients of reconstruction contracts.
Foreign companies are also wary of investing in trouble-torn Iraq after a summer campaign of bombings, including that of the UN compound last month in which 22 people were killed.
Violence flared again late on Saturday night when two US military policemen were killed and 13 wounded in a mortar attack at the main Abu Ghurib prison to the west of the Iraqi capital.
The deaths bring to 81 the number of US soldiers killed in attacks in Iraq since May 1st, when President Bush declared an end to major combat operations.
Aqila al-Hashimi, the Governing Council member, who survived an assassination attempt that also took place on Saturday, was reported to be in a stable but critical condition in hospital yesterday.
Al-Hashimi was shot in the stomach, shoulder and leg by gunmen whilst leaving her home in western Baghdad, with the administration in Iraq blaming Saddam-loyalists for the attack.
The American civilian administrator for Iraq, Paul Bremer, condemned the shooting yesterday as a "horrific and cowardly act".
The US military yesterday denied a British media report that Saddam Hussein had offered money and information on weapons of mass destruction in return for safe passage to the ex-Soviet republic of Belarus.
The Sunday Mirror newspaper said an aide of the fugitive ex-president had approached US forces in Tikrit and led them to a house in the suburbs. There, they were given a letter, purportedly handwritten by Saddam, proposing talks.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday briefed Spain's Mr Jose Maria Aznar, a fellow supporter of the US invasion of Iraq, on his weekend talks with European Union leaders who led opposition to the war. Blair hosted Mr Aznar at his Chequers retreat outside London. - (Reuters)