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Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Les H who wrote (235193)	4/12/2003 10:18:12 AM
From: Haim R. Branisteanu	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

G7 Finance Chiefs Mull Iraq Future, Tensions High Sat April 12, 2003 08:08 AM ET By Amran Abocar WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With political nerves on edge about Iraq's future, global finance chiefs gathered in Washington on Saturday to consider how to help rebuild the war-ravaged country and to pump up their own economies. Finance ministers from the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, Canada, France and Italy -- the Group of Seven industrialized countries -- gathered shortly after 7 a.m. EDT. G7 sources said that while Iraq's reconstruction had not originally been part of the formal agenda, ministers and central bankers decided at a working dinner on Friday to add it as a special topic of discussion at a 7:15 a.m. EDT session. Officials offered no comment as they entered Washington's Blair House, near the White House. Security was tight with government Secret Service officers keeping reporters well back from the entrance. Central bankers and finance chiefs from the G7, plus Russia, met over dinner on Friday night before sessions that were to wrap up about mid-Saturday with a statement. Russia's finance minister will join part of the meeting. U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow said this week he wanted to have "framework" talks at the G7 session about Iraqi reconstruction, once the war finally ends, including some sort of deal over forgiving the war-ravaged country's past debts. But underlying the talks are tensions caused by splits between group members over whether the United States and Britain should have gone to war in the first place. Germany, France and Russia led opposition to the war, saying the United Nations should have had more time to carry out arms inspections in Iraq. The G7 meeting is taking place on the fringes of the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank and some participants still were maneuvering over the roles the United Nations and the two global lenders would play in rebuilding Iraq. Snow wants the World Bank to move swiftly to launch a study of Iraq's reconstruction needs, which are likely to include everything from schools to power stations and upgraded oil-pumping stations worth billions of dollars in contracts. Some nations fear the United States will use the World Bank and IMF to lead reconstruction, denying the United Nations the top role. On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Jacques Chirac and Germany's Gerhard Schroeder met in St. Petersburg and agreed the world body must lead the Iraqi effort -- something the United States has rejected. "I want to stress again that the situation we are confronting in Iraq must be resolved as quickly as possible in accordance with the U.N. charter," Putin said, with Chirac and Schroeder at his side. The finance leaders, who must deal with how to reinvigorate an enfeebled pace of global expansion, want to steer clear of political complications. DIFFERENCES ARE REAL Still, it will be difficult to paper over the Iraq issue, especially with IMF head Horst Koehler and World Bank chief James Wolfensohn saying clearly they were ready to help in Iraq but only if all their shareholders told them to. After a bilateral meeting on Friday, Japanese Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa and Snow agreed the United Nations should play a "vital role" in Iraqi rebuilding, along with others. Japan's reading could be interpreted as supportive of the U.S. position, but Canada seemed neutral at best. "Our position is that we would like to see the full engagement of all the international institutions," said a senior Canadian official who spoke on condition of anonymity. The IMF is forecasting only modest 2003 global economic growth of 3.2 percent and has warned the risks of a worse outcome are high. "The greater the uncertainty, the greater the need to collaborate; that is our motto," IMF Managing Director Koehler said on Thursday. That may enhance chances the G7 partners will support some debt relief for Iraq. Snow said it would be unfair to burden Iraq -- rich in oil resources but suffering from decades of bad management -- with old debts from the Saddam Hussein regime that are estimated to total around $127 billion. (For more news about emergency relief visit Reuters AlertNet alertnet.org email: alertnet@reuters.com)