Two nobel prize winners visit Iraq

Two personalities who won the Nobel Prize, Argentina's Adolfo Perez-Esquivel and Ireland's Mairead Corrigan Maguire, called yesterday in Baghdad for economic sanctions imposed on Iraq to be lifted and for halting the U.S. - British raids on Iraq.

At the conclusion of their three-day visit to Iraq, Perez-Esquivel and Maguire announced that thousands ofIraqi children are dying from malnutrition and disease in Iraq and that the urgent priority is to put and end to the economic sanctions and the shelling.

In their statements, they also said their visit to hospitals and schools confirmed the fact to which statistics spoke, adding that they have seen the horrible pain of children and the anxiety of their parents, and they urged UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to seek an end to the US - British strikes on Iraq.

They also called on the Arab League to intensify its efforts to lift the sanctions and demanded that the US and British legislatures send fact-finding commission to Iraq.