Iraqi 79 million dollar debt written off

Malta has announced it will write off Iraq's 79.2 million US dollar debt with the island nation as part of international attempts to assist the reconstruction of the war-torn Middle East country.

According to the Maltese internet news site, di-ve, Malta is the second of Iraq's bilateral creditors to cancel claims dating to Saddam Hussien's era and went beyond the 80 per cent debt forgiveness level agreed to by the Paris Club of creditors in November 2004. The Paris Club included the United States, European nations, Japan, Russia, Canada and Australia.

Last December, the US cancelled all of its pre-1990s claims against Iraq of more than 4.1 billion US dollars.

Maltese parliamentary secretary, Tonio Fenech, was quoted as saying that the agreement demonstrates Malta's willingness to provide assistance to developing countries within its limited resources, the AKI reports.