Iraqi minister to carry out Asian tour

Iraq's minister of commerce Ali Allawi will tour several Asian cities covering Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia in order to gather international support for the rebuilding Iraq programs and to "acquaint governments of these countries and their business people on the requirements of the programs for rebuilding Iraq and the opportunities provided by the Iraqi economy for their economic activists."

This tour comes just days before convening the donor sides conference in Madrid. Allawi will work to gain the support of these countries to Iraq rebuilding programs in Madrid which will be held on October 23 and 24, according to the Iraqi radio.

On October 2nd, both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund made an independent assessment in Madrid that showed the amount of money needed for rebuilding Iraq on the period from 2004 to 2007 in 14 main sectors, estimated at USD 36 billion. This assessment was discussed during a preliminary meeting for the donors conference.

For its part, the occupation forces estimated Iraq's rebuilding requirements in main sectors like security, industry and oil at 20 billion dollars.