(September 1, 2004) Britain yesterday committed £50 million ($90m) in specific bilateral aid projects for war-torn Iraq from a total 544 million package that London has pledged to spend by March 2006.

(August 30, 2004) The new U.S. ambassador to Iraq wants to shift more than $3 billion in U.S. aid away from reconstruction to security, and proposes the U.S. forgive $360 million of Iraq’s debt in the hope other countries will follow suit.

(August 30, 2004) Senator John Edwards said a Kerry-Edwards U.S. administration would bring other nations into the postwar effort by asking them to forgive Iraq’s debt and help rebuild the war-ravaged economy.

(August 26, 2004) It was supposed to be oil for food in Iraq, but the largest humanitarian program ever launched by the United Nations turns out to have been grease for friends – Saddam Hussein’s friends.

(August 26, 2004) Two European banks were yesterday accused by the US Treasury Department of helping Saddam Hussein launder money stolen from the UN oil-for-food programme.

(August 25, 2004) Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi called for Iraq’s national debt – the highest in the world as a percentage of GDP – to be largely forgiven "so that future generations of Iraqis are not made to suffer for the wrongs of the Saddam regime.

(August 23, 2004) U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan backs a permanent U.N. body that would provide reparations for victims of wars.

(August 18, 2004) Chancellor Schroeder said today that the German government is ready to "substantially" reduce Iraq’s debts to Germany to ensure more funds were put to the post-war reconstruction of the country.

(August 10, 2004) The head of an independent panel investigating corruption in the United Nations’ "oil-for-food" program for Iraq says it may take another year to produce its main findings.

(August 2, 2004) Some send emissaries in secret, some host seminars, all seek a relationship.

(July 28, 2004) Congressional committees investigating allegations of corruption and mismanagement in the United Nations oil-for-food program in Iraq are at odds with the organization’s own inquiry over access to records and personnel.

(July 18, 2004) The Netherlands is prepared to grant Iraq debt relief on some of the 245 million euros ($302.6m) it is owed in export credit and interest, a Dutch minister was quoted as saying.

(July 16, 2004) A UN-backed watchdog has reported weak controls over Iraqi oil riches under the US-led occupation, including use of the money for a no-bid Halliburton contract.

(July 15, 2004) A House committee has issued a subpoena for financial records from a French bank that managed billions of dollars in Iraqi oil revenue through a U.N.-administered humanitarian program.