Maliki calls on world to forgive Iraq's debts

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki today called on all countries to forgive his country’s foreign debts on the opening day of the Iraq conference in Egypt.

In his speech opening the Sharm el-Sheikh conference , Mr Maliki also pledged to institute reforms that the United States and Sunni Arab governments had repeatedly called for, including bringing more Sunni Arabs into the Iraqi political process.

Iraq owes some £25bn (€36.6bn), notably to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Russia and China.

The debts were run up mostly during former leader Saddam Hussein’s war against Iran in the 1980s, according to Iraq’s Finance Minister Bayan Jabr.

Another £50bn (€73.2bm) has already been written off by the Paris Club of lender nations.