By NNN-Xinhua
Stockholm : Sweden will host an international conference on Iraq on May 29 in collaboration with Baghdad and the United Nations, Sweden’s Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said here.
It will be the first follow-up meeting after the launch of the five-year International Compact with Iraq (ICI) peace and development plan in Egypt last May, Bildt said at a briefing.
The one-day conference would focus on “international support, reconciliation and state building” in Iraq, Bildt said, emphasizing that the meeting would not be a donors conference.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Iraq’s Prime Minister Nurial-Maliki are due to attend the conference, the Swedish Foreign Minister said, adding that he expected some 80 delegations to attend. But he had no word yet who would represent the United States.
Last week in Bucharest Sweden’s Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt announced that Ban and Maliki had asked it to host the conference.
The ICI is an Iraqi government initiative with the international community aimed at supporting the political process in the war-torn country.