Iraqi officials Thursday renewed calls for debt relief at a one-day UN-Iraq conference hosted by Sweden, reported dpa.
The debt relief issue was however not a focal point of the follow- up to the International Compact for Iraq (ICI) launched a year ago at a summit in Egypt, where delegates reviewed Baghdad's commitment to improve security, human rights and economic development.
After opening statements by among others Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and deputy Iraqi prime minister Barham Sali, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told reporters that discussions on debt write-offs "were good" and some countries in the Middle East had already done so.
"We are waiting for Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Kuwait as well," he said.
The International Monetary Fund has estimated that Iraq in 2007- 2008 settled 23 billion dollars of its 75-billion-dollar external debt burden.
Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa also touched on efforts in the Arab region to forgive Iraq's debt in his remarks.