Moscow hopes that Baghdad will pay its debts

Moscow hopes that Baghdad will fulfil earlier signed contracts between Russia and Iraq and return its debts. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Georgy Mamedov spoke about this at a briefing on Thursday.

According to him, these questions were discussed with US Secretary of State Colin Powell at the negotiations that ended on Wednesday.

Georgy Mamedov said that the Russian side transferred the juridically drawn up documents on this score. "We hope that these documents will be taken into consideration by the American side," he said.

The deputy minister pointed out that the question was being considered now about putting the Iraqi debts for consideration of the Paris Club.

Georgy Mamedov said that, according to the US Secretary of State, "the debts of Iraq to other countries amount to 100-120 billion dollars, out of which 8 billion are owed to the Russian Federation."