Washington, Sept 09: The World Bank would want to offer financial aid for rebuilding Iraq "without too many strings attached" and with as much flexibility as possible, the bank's president said today. James Wolfensohn said that the World Bank would produce a needs assessment report on Iraq by the end of the month that will serve as a basis for discussion leading up to a donors' conference in Madrid, Spain Oct. 23-24, expected to be attended by 50 nations and international organizations.

"This is not a last decimal point estimate,'' Wolfensohn said of the needs assessment. "This is trying to frame the needs and, most importantly, having our Iraqi friends agree on the needs.''


He also said that the bank would want flexibility to provide financial aid if it were asked to manage an international reconstruction fund for Iraq. The fund is expected to be managed by the United Nations and the world bank although Wolfensohn said the bank so far has not been formally asked to do so.

"If we were asked, what we would hope to do is to use the fund working very closely with our Iraqi friends, counterparts, and as much as possible have flexible funds,'' Wolfensohn said at a news conference.

He said that the bank's experience in Afghanistan and East Timor showed that ``the sort of funding you need in post-conflict (situations) is flexible funding without too many strings attached.''
The US administrator for Iraq has put the cost of rebuilding the country in the ``tens of billions,'' part of that sum to be met with Iraqi oil income, estimated at $10 to $12 billion a year.

Bureau Report