al-Thawra: Syria offers Iraq 1000 tons of wheat

Syria officially delivered to the World Food Program (WFP) a shipment of Syrian wheat to be presented to Iraqi people who are suffering from poverty as a result of economic stagnation.

The WFP welcomed Tuesday Syria's donation of 1,000 tons of wheat to help the Iraqis. "We appreciate Syrian donations because they come at a time our program suffers deficit in financing," Manager of WFP in Iraq, Calm Gardner, said in a statement issued published by al-Thawra newspaper.

He added that the program still needs about 65% of the program's total operations in Iraq to buy and distribute 19 thousand tons of food till late 2005.

For his part, manager of the WFP in Syria, Mohammad al-Cohen, thanked Syria who has become "one of the promising donor countries for the Program," pointing out that Syria supported the WFP operations in the occupied Palestinian lands last year.