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Iraq to spend $9bn on security
27/11/2007 20:09 - (SA)
Baghdad - Iraq will spend nearly one-fifth of its 2008 budget on security - $9bn out of a total of $48.4bn budget - to allow its forces "to take over full responsibility for the country", a senior Finance Ministry official said on Tuesday.
The official, Aziz Jaafar, told parliament the budget's two priorities are security and economic development.
He said $15bn would be spent on economic and infrastructure development, according to Jaafar.
The 2008 budget, which takes effect January 1, marks an increase of $7.4bn over the current budget.
Security has been the biggest challenge facing successive Iraqi governments since the 2003 ouster of Saddam Hussein.
Iraqi leaders have repeatedly complained that violence by Sunni Arab insurgents and Shiite militias have hampered reconstruction projects.
The announcement by Jaafar of the $9bn security budget underlines the country's security problems and the need to better equip and expand its security forces. There were no comparable figures for 2007.
Threats and terrorism
It came a day after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and President George W Bush signed an agreement that would serve as the foundation for a potential long-term US presence in Iraq.
The agreement will provide for US assistance against external threats and terrorism by al-Qaeda, Saddam loyalists and criminal gangs. It's also expected to include continued US assistance in training Iraq's police and army.
Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on Monday he remains hopeful that conditions in Iraq will continue to improve enough to permit US troop reductions beyond those already set to be carried out between now and next July.
Iraq's military facilities were stripped bare in the wave of unfettered looting that swept much of the country immediately after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime, and the army was disbanded by the US authorities soon after the regime fell - a widely criticised decision that forced the country to rebuild its armed forces largely from scratch.
- AP
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