The World Bank plans to embark on its first reconstruction projects in Iraq since the toppling of Saddam Hussein by October, its Head of Mission for the Iraq programme said today.
Mr Faris Hadad-Zervos said in an interview the projects would improve infrastructure in the war-scarred country, helping to provide water and sanitation and rehabilitate schools.
The bank's interim reconstruction programme for Iraq projects estimates the projects it envisages, which also include labour-intensive irrigation schemes, would cost between $400 and $600 million.
The World Bank recognised Iraq's interim government as legitimate on June 29, the day after the United States handed sovereignty to it, opening the way for lending the country.
But the aid body said its full engagement in Iraq was conditional on a recognised government, repayment of arrears to the bank and a secure environment.
"We actually hope to begin the phase of implementation by October. The projects are in infrastructure rehabilitation, water and sanitation and school rehabilitation," Mr Hadad-Zervos said.
He was speaking in Amman, where the bank's Iraq Mission has been based since August 2003, when the international lender withdrew its staff from Baghdad following a bomb blast at the United Nations headquarters there.
Mr Hadad-Zervos said donors would review the World Bank infrastructure projects along with other UN programmes undertaken in Iraq in a coordination meeting in Tokyo on October 12-14.