Cartoons: Iraq ends contracts

2006-02-05 17:13

Baghdad, Iraq - The Iraqi transport ministry has decided to cancel its contracts with Danish firms and reject any offers of Danish reconstruction money to protest the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, the minister said on Sunday.

Transport minister Salam al-Maliki said the decision would involve contracts in the fields of ports, aviation, rail and maritime transport.

"The ministry rejects receiving Danish donations for reconstruction as a form of protest for their act," he said.

Al-Maliki is a supporter of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose organisation has been behind many of the protests in Iraq against the drawings, first published in Denmark and later reprinted elsewhere.

There was no indication that the decision would affect contracts controlled by other ministries and there was no official statement from the government.

The number and value of the transportation contracts was not available.

Denmark maintains about 430 troops in southern Iraq as part of the US-led multinational command.

- AP