Richest nations may drop debt of 33 poorest

(September 22, 2004) The world’s wealthiest governments will decide on Oct. 1 whether to back a proposal by Britain and the United States to write off tens of billions of dollars in debt owed by 33 of the world’s poorest nations to international financial institutions.

Paris Club favours ‘individual treatment’ of Iraqi debt cut

(September 14, 2004) The Paris Club of creditor nations did not arrive at a consensus on the exact amount of Iraq’s debt to be canceled, but agreed in principle to an individual treatment of the debt cut, the French Foreign Ministry announced this week. There is "consensus on the fact that Iraq’s debt is unbearable and that Iraq should benefit from the Evian approach decided at [the] G8 summit in 2003," said Foreign Ministry spokesman, Herve Ladsous. Such an approach, he said, permits the possibility of allowing an individual treatment of the debt cut to non-HIPC countries (Countries that are not technically Heavily Indebted Poor Countries).