UPI

June 12, 2003

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s former finance ministry director general said Iraq had foreign worth more than $18 billion, including $1.3 billion seized by the United States.

Fayek Abdel Rasul said the assets were distributed in several foreign banks and as much as $7 billion had been frozen.

Abdel Rasul said an estimated $495 million were deposited in Lebanese banks, and $1.3 billion, confiscated by the U.S. government. He said Iraq possessed assets worth between $300 million and $500 million in Jordanian banks in addition to deposits worth more than $1 billion allocated to agreements signed with Syria and Turkey.

He said Iraq’s debt and the interests on the loans amounted to $130 billion. Most of the debt — 65 percent — was contracted to import military equipment from Russia, China and France.