(January 30, 2004) The regime of deposed President Saddam Hussein paid off Western and Arab countries through illicit oil sales and bribes in exchange for their support for the regime, claims Baghdad daily "Al-Mada".

(January 30, 2004) Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad is ready to return to Iraqi authorities money stashed in Syria by ousted President Saddam Hussein but does not want to give it to the Americans in Baghdad, a member of Iraq’s transitional Governing Council said yesterday.

(January 30, 2004) There has been a lot of discussion of debt forgiveness for Iraq, but there have also been some interesting, almost forbidden, topics in the debate.

(January 29, 2004) Chancellor Gordon Brown of Britain’s New Labour Party told MPs the "vast majority" of Iraq’s US$120 billion international debt must be written off to stabilise its economy.

(January 23, 2004) Kuwait is prepared to significantly reduce Iraq’s estimated 16-billion-dollar debt to the emirate, however, the issue of Iraqi debt does not include war reparations.

(January 23, 2004) Canada has agreed to wipe out its share of the $120-billion US debt owed by Iraq, Prime Minister Paul Martin announced Friday at the World Economic Forum of business leaders in Davos, Switzerland.

(January 22, 2004) Most of Iraq’s sovereign creditors are prepared to consider writing off two-thirds of its foreign debt of $120 billion, World Bank President James Wolfensohn said on Thursday.

(January 21, 2004) Qatar said yesterday that it would waive most of the $4 billion or so Iraq owes it and will consider writing off the rest.

(January 21, 2004) Saudi Arabia has said it is prepared to negotiate a "substantial" reduction of Iraq’s debt to the kingdom.

(January 20, 2004) The Bush administration could make former US Secretary of State James Baker’s task much easier, if it agreed to make a substantial contribution to the cost of Iraqi debt reduction.