Iraqi governing council delegation at the UN; Iraq in OPEC's meeting

The Interim Governing Council in Iraq announced yesterday that it will take part in the ministerial meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries OPEC due to be held on September 24 in Vienna, for the first time since the war in Iraq on March 20.

The council decided to send a delegation to the UN Security Council in New York to attend the discussion of the international resolution concerning Iraq and to meet with the US President George W. Bush.

Intifad Qanbar, Spokesman for the Iraqi National Congress Chirman Ahmed Chalabi, who is the current chairman of the interim governing council in Iraq, said in a press conference held in Baghdad yesterday that the new Iraqi minister of oil Ibrahim Baher al-Aloum will take part in OPEC's next meeting.

The spokesman for OPEC Omar Ibrahim said yesterday in Vienna that Iraq will take part in Vienna's meeting. He said "we have extended an invitation to Baher al-Aloum" stressing he will attend OPEC's meeting.

A high ranking Iraqi oil official said that "Iraq will take part in the meeting in his capacity as a full membership member in OPEC, rather than an observer."

Meantime, the governor of the Central Bank in the United Arab Emirates Sultan Bin Nasser al-Sweidi said yesterday that a delegation from Iraq will take part in the meetings of the governors of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund due to be held in Dubai on September 23 and 25. In a statement, al-Sweidi said that in the framework of the meetings, the issue of rebuilding Iraq and Afghanistan will be discussed, unofficially.

He said that the meetings "will effectively contribute in the efforts made to rebuild what was destroyed by recent wars and more than 12 years of international sanctions on Iraq." It was agreed to train a group of employees of the Iraqi central bank in the UAE.