Iraqi vice president meets with U.S. treasury official

March 15, 2007

Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi will update U.N. member states and other potential donors Friday on the war-torn country's plan for economic development and ask for international support, the United Nations said.

Abdul-Mahdi, one of two vice-presidents, will be promoting a five-year plan known as the Iraq Compact to ensure the government has funds to survive and enact key political and economic reforms. The compact was set up shortly after Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki took office in June 2006 to "consolidate peace and pursue political, economic and social development."

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who convened the meeting, "looks forward to the participation of the broader international community ... to help put Iraq on a credible path towards sustainable development and economic prosperity," his spokeswoman Michele Montas said Wednesday.

Delegations from more than 40 countries plan to attend the meeting, she said.

Abdul-Mahdi met Wednesday in Washington with U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Robert Kimmitt, who will lead the U.S. delegation to the meeting.

Kimmitt said in a statement issued after the meeting that he congratulated the vice-president on Iraq's economic progress and lauded the creation of the Iraq Compact as "an ambitious framework for transformation of the Iraqi economy."

Ban recently appointed Ibrahim Gambari, the former U.N. undersecretary-general for political affairs, to be his special adviser for the compact. Gambari and the Iraqi delegation, which also includes Planning Minister Ali Baban, will co-chair Friday's meeting.

The U.S. Treasury said all parties have agreed to a ministerial meeting in the near future to formally sign the compact.