US sees Russian role in Iraq, but no oil for debt-write off

Moscow, Apr 16: The United States wants Russia to play a role in Iraq's reconstruction but has no plans to strike a deal guaranteeing Russian oil contracts in return for Moscow writing off Baghdad debts, a top US official said today. "We're not trying to exclude Russia in participating in the reconstruction," Alexander Vershbow, the US ambassador to Moscow, told reporters.
Responding to comments from an unnamed Russian economic official that Moscow might write off nearly eight billion Dollars in debts to Iraq if the United States guarantees Moscow's Iraqi oil contracts and a role in post-war reconstruction, Vershbow said no such deal was planned.
"I think that these different issues of how to deal with the debt, contracts related to both reconstruction and oil, shouldn't be linked," he said.

"We don't think that we should get into that kind of trading of different issues."

A senior pentagon official earlier suggested that Germany, France and Russia could help Iraq by writing off its debts.

The comments prompted an angry response from some Moscow officials, although President Vladimir Putin later said he was willing to look into the proposal.
Bureau Report