U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Thursday asked Iraq's neighbors and the broader international community to help rebuild the country.
"Iraq requires regional and international support to succeed," Rice told an international conference on Iraq in Stockholm.
"Increased diplomatic, economic, social and cultural engagement with the people of Iraq is essential. We urge Iraq's neighbors and friends to strengthen these ties through official visits to Iraq, the reopening of embassies and consulates, and the appointment of ambassadors."
She also asked Arab states to allow Iraq to appoint ambassadors to their countries.
Rice called on the international community to reduce Iraqi debt. Since the launch of the International Compact with Iraq a year ago, several countries, including Russia, have agreed to major reductions in Iraq's Saddam-era debts, she said.
"We would encourage other countries that have not yet provided debt relief to do so."
The International Compact is an initiative of the government of Iraq for a new partnership with the international community.
Warning against complacency over Iraq, Rice said: "We should not overlook Iraq's remaining challenges, nor suggest that everything that could have been accomplished has been accomplished," she said.
While the goals and benchmarks of the compact are clear, Iraq needs to improve efforts for implementation among its ministries, she said.
Rice said earlier on Thursday that the international community's priority for Iraq is not financial assistance, but capacity building.
"The Iraqis don't need large sums of money. They do need large infusions of technical assistance, project support, help to build an adequate police force, help to build an adequate justice system, help to build the capacity to execute their large budgets, down to the provincial and local levels," Rice told reporters after a meeting with Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt.
"Iraq is increasingly a functioning state. The question is: can it be a capable and functioning state?" asked Rice.
"Now that the security situation is improving, I would hope the international community would accelerate efforts to help make Iraq a capable state," she urged.
Thursday's meeting, officially called the International Compact review conference, is the first global meeting on Iraq following the UN-backed compact's launch in Egypt a year ago.
Apart from Rice, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, the Stockholm conference also brought together delegations from some 80 countries and representatives of a dozen international organizations.
Source:Xinhua
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