May 5, 2007

A key international conference on Iraq security on Thursday overwhelmingly adopted a five-year plan aimed at rescuing the war-ravaged country from chaos and bankruptcy.

"The resolution to support Iraq and to pull it out of its crisis has been adopted by acclamation by all the participants," the United Nations' pointman in Iraq Ashraf Qazi said, after the initiative was approved by consensus.

Foreign ministers and top diplomats from more than 50 countries were gathered in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to launch the International Compact with Iraq (ICI).

"The main aim of the International Compact is to rebuild a unified, democratic and federal Iraq and to distribute its wealth fairly," Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told delegates in opening remarks.

The document includes a raft of measures to give fresh impetus to Iraq's economy, improve governance and offer financial assistance, in a process key players hope will bolster reconciliation between warring communities.

It includes new laws on oil revenue sharing and on the return to public life of members of the late Saddam Hussein's regime.

"We call on all participating countries to cancel Iraq's debt in order to allow it to begin the building and development and to fix the destroyed infrastructure," Maliki said.

Iraq's Finance Minister Bayan Jabr Solagh said before the conference kicked off he expected countries including Saudi Arabia and Egypt to write off up to 40-50 billion dollars of debt at the meeting.

Attending the conference, British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett pledged 200 million dollars worth of reconstruction, stressing the role of Iraq's neighbors in reducing violence and encouraging reconciliation.

The meeting was seen as the biggest diplomatic push to solve Iraq's many woes since the US-led invasion in March 2003 and Rice urged broad and sustained support for the new initiative.

"Today's Compact meeting is an historic event, but we all know it is the beginning of a process and not an end in itself," she said.

On her way to the conference, Rice said the onus was on Iraq's neighbors to show their commitment to ending violence, warning that their own stability was at stake.

Marking a further shift in US policy, Rice met her Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem and had a brief exchange with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.

Washington has repeatedly accused Syria and Iran, which neighbor Iraq, of supporting the Sunni insurgency and Shiite militias respectively.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit escorted Muallem into a meeting room where Rice was waiting and withdrew shortly afterwards to leave the two officials together.

"I expect they will have a discussion on border security issues. We'll see if it happens," a US state department official said on condition of anonymity before the meeting.

The last high-ranking US official to hold talks with Syrian officials was then deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage, who traveled to Damascus in January 2005.

Abul Gheit said that Rice and Mottaki met over lunch and that "there was an exchange of some words, yes. They are civilized people after all."

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack confirmed the brief exchange but added that it did not go beyond basic civilities.

"They said hello."

Any deep bilateral talks would mark the first high level talks meeting since diplomatic relations broke off in 1980.

On her way to Egypt, Rice indicated that she would also be ready to discuss issues other than Iraq with the Iranian foreign minister, including the standoff over the Islamic republic's nuclear program.

"I think I could handle any question as asked," she said.

Friday's meetings are expected to bring together Iraq's neighbors in a bid to step up cooperation on security issues, such as cross-border smuggling of weapons and militants.

The conference comes against the backdrop of an intense battle between US President George W. Bush's administration and the Democrat-dominated Congress over the war in Iraq.

On Tuesday, Bush dashed the hopes of some of Iraq's neighbors for a firm timetable for the withdrawal of US troops by vetoing a bill setting a start date for a pullout.