Jordanian ministers head for Baghdad

A large Jordanian delegation including four ministers and several number of activists representing both the private and public sectors will head on Friday for Iraq in a visit which lasts three days in order to hold talks with officials there on means of developing relations between the two states especially in the economic field.

The delegation which is led by the minister of industry and commerce Wasef Azar is composed of the ministers of energy and mineral resources Muhammad al-Bateynah; the minister of agriculture Mahmoud al-Dweiri, health minister Faleh al-Naser, the secretary general of the ministry of industry and commerce Samer al-Tawil and several businessmen, the representatives for the chambers of commerce and industry and economic activists.

The Iraqi- Jordanian talks will deal with the implementation of the oil pipeline project which is extended from the Iraqi oil field to the north of Baghdad to the Jordanian oil refinery in al-Zarqaa due to be implemented as from the beginning of 2001, increasing the volume of the trade protocol between the two states which reached $ 450 million, the possibility of increasing the Jordanian exports to Iraq and opening its markets before the Jordanian industrial and agricultural products.