SECRETARY-GENERAL ASKED FOR UN SUPPORT IN LAUNCH OF INTERNATIONAL COMPACT FOR IRAQ

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan:

The Secretary-General received a telephone call from the Prime Minister of Iraq, Nuri al-Maliki, earlier this week.  Yesterday, he met the Iraqi Foreign Minister, Hoshyar Zebari, who requested the United Nations support in launching an International Compact for Iraq.  Later in the day, he met United States Deputy Treasury Secretary Robert Kimmitt and State Department Counsellor Philip Zelikow, who came with a message from President Bush supporting the Iraqi request for a lead United Nations role in the process.

The Secretary-General agreed to the Iraqi request for the United Nations to provide strong support in developing the International Compact.  Additionally, he told his interlocutors that the United Nations will be working closely in the coming days with the Iraqi Government and the donor community -- including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), other United Nations agencies, and the World Bank -- to come up with a joint approach to support the new Government.

The Secretary-General looks forward to receiving more details from the Iraqis on the Compact and on the role they would wish the United Nations to play.

The Secretary-General has designated the Deputy Secretary-General, Mark Malloch Brown, as his focal point in New York for this issue, and his Special Representative, Ashraf Qazi, in the same role on the ground in Iraq.

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For information media • not an official record