Iraq security 'much better than before'

On the day of a deadly attack against US troops, Iraq’s finance minister said he saw signs of improvement in his country’s security.

Adil Abdel-Mahdi, a leading Shiite politician, said the provisional Iraqi government was trying to improve security for foreign investors and workers.

He said conditions are ”much better than before” as a result of the US-led mission last month to drive insurgents out of the Sunni-dominated city of Fallujah.

In recent weeks, there have been “no kidnappings, no hostages, so this shows that there’s a blow to the terrorists in this respect. I think they will try to continue their acts, but their operations, their profile is lower today than it was before,” he said at a news conference yesterday at the National Press Club.

Abdel-Mahdi did not specifically speak of yesterday’s attack at a military base in the northern Iraq city of Mosul, which a US military spokesman said killed 22 people, including 15 US service members.

A radical Sunni Muslim group, the Ansar al-Sunnah Army, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Abdel-Mahdi and Alan Larson, under-secretary of state for economic affairs, spoke after a two-day meeting on Iraq’s economic development, which has been hindered by security problems. The US agreed to provide housing and agricultural aid to Iraq and offer training for the country’s oil ministry.

:: Meanwhile, two French reporters held hostage for four months in Iraq were expected home today, a day after their release to French authorities provoked joyous scenes across their home country.

Christian Chesnot, 38, who works for Radio France Internationale, and Georges Malbrunot, 41, a correspondent for French daily Le Figaro, were handed over to French authorities in Baghdad.

The men disappeared on August 20 along with their Syrian driver on the road to the Iraqi city of Najaf. The driver, Mohammed al-Joundi, was freed in November.