(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.

(January 15, 2004) The Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) said yesterday it would try to help in the reconstruction of Iraq but stressed the conflict-hit country must pay its swelling debt which caused its suspension from the Fund 12 years ago.

(January 15, 2004) John Snow and James A. Baker III briefed International Monetary Fund and World Bank officials on Baker’s efforts to persuade countries to forgive much of Iraq’s massive debt, officials at the lending institutions said Thursday.

(January 13, 2004) Iraq’s finance minister on Tuesday urged countries to which Iraq owes billions of dollars to write down or even write off the debt to allow the country to recover from three wars and three decades of dictatorship.

(January 5, 2004) Under Saddam Hussein, Iraq called on its Arab neighbors to help supply and pay for arms for the war effort. Baghdad later insisted that the aid was in the form of grants, not loans, and therefore repayment was not required.

(January 5, 2004) It is in our interest to help Iraq so the situation there stabilizes. Unless it does so, we will not see a single koruna," Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla said.