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The deal is worth $3bn, says the oil minister China’s state-owned oil firm CNPC has agreed a $3bn (£1.63bn) oil services contract with the government of Iraq. The two parties renegotiated a 1997 deal to pump oil from the Ahdab oilfield, the Iraqi oil minister said. Under the new deal, output from the oilfield will be 110,000 barrels per day, up from the 90,000 barrels forecast in the original deal. The deal is the first major oil contract with a foreign firm since the US-led war in Iraq, reports say. As security improves, Iraq - which has some of the biggest oil reserves in the Middle East - is trying to bring in foreign oil companies to boost crude output. It needs billions of dollars of investment after years of war and sanctions. Other foreign oil companies, such as Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil, are also negotiating

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Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr suspends activity of his 60,000-strong Mahdi Army for an indefinite period, a statement by the group says. “The Mahdi Army suspension will be valid indefinitely and anyone who does not follow this order will not be considered a member of this group,” Sadr said in the statement issued on Thursday. The cleric had earlier announced plans to transform most of the Mahdi Army into a social organization, while preserving an elite group to fight the US occupation, without harming Iraqi

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BAGHDAD: At a communal water station in a Baghdad slum, a young boy’s skinny arms fly up and down as he uses a bicycle pump to coax water from the dry ground.

His efforts produce a languid stream that will tide over his family — and the families of the children waiting near him to fill their cooking pots — until the next day.

This is a daily ritual for millions of Iraqis who lack access to sufficient clean water and proper sewage five years after the US-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.

Water and sewage are perennial challenges in this arid country, where the overhaul of decrepit public works has been hindered by years of war and neglect.

Nearly a billion liters of raw sewage is dumped into Baghdad waterways each day — enough to fill 370 Olympic-sized Read more »

BAGHDAD — Several thousand supporters of anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr protested Friday against an emerging U.S.-Iraqi security agreement, saying it would turn Iraq into a U.S. colony.

The march in the southern city of Kufa came a day after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad to discuss the deal, which includes a gradual withdrawal of U.S. forces.

Under a draft agreement, American combat troops would pull out of major Iraqi cities by next June and leave Iraq by 2011, according to Iraqi officials familiar with the document.

The schedule could be modified if the two governments agree, Read more »

A U.S. soldier patrols a street this week on the outskirts of Baquba, Iraq.

U.S. and Iraqi negotiators have reached agreement on a proposal calling for a complete U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq by 2012, the head Iraqi negotiator said Friday.
The deal still must be approved by both sides, said Mohammed al-Haj Hamoud, deputy foreign minister and head of the Iraqi negotiating team.

Hamoud said Thursday’s meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was helpful in reaching the tentative agreement.

Hamoud said the proposal also says the last date for the presence of U.S. troops in cities and towns will be June 30, 2009.

There are clear caveats, however.
If the Iraqi government sees the necessity of keeping the American Read more »

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki (R) meets visiting Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Baghdad August 21, 2008.

The United States and Iraq are close to a deal extending the presence of U.S. troops beyond 2008, but any timetable for their withdrawal must be “feasible”, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Thursday.

Rice, who flew to Baghdad on an unannounced visit, denied reports that the deal has already been reached but said it was close and she was hoping to iron out any remaining questions with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari also said the deal was “very close”, and would include “time horizons” for U.S. withdrawal. He repeatedly stressed that the agreement would be temporary. But neither side would confirm any specific Read more »

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) — President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran said Friday that regional nations should fill the security vacuum when the U. S. withdraws its troops from Iraq, adding that there is no prospect of sending in Iranian forces.

The United States and Iraq have worked on a deal this year to try to ensure Iraqi security but have disagreed on timing for American troops to withdraw.

“The United States will soon leave the region, then regional countries should fill the security vacuum. There is no need for interference of other countries,” Ahmadinejad said on the final day of a two-day Istanbul visit.

Ahmadinejad said Iraq’s “stability and territorial integrity” are important for Iran. “We all have to protect the state of Iraq,” he said.

Asked at a news conference if this meant Iranian troops would go into Iraq after U. S. forces leave, Ahmadinejad said: “I have never said such a thing.” Subscribe=>

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