France open to forgiving Iraq's debt

	JOE RAEDLE / GETTY IMAGES Iraqi men read about Saddam Hussein's capture in newspapers yesterday in Baghdad. U.S. troops found the ex-dictator Saturday, hiding in a hole outside Tikrit.
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PARIS — France and other creditor nations are looking to strike a deal on helping Iraq reduce its foreign debt next year, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said yesterday, without specifying how much debt might be canceled or restructured.

The announcement came a day before former Secretary of State James Baker, charged with trying to win international support for reconstruction, including promises to erase Iraq's crushing burden of foreign debt, is to visit France.

Baker's mission was made more complicated by the U.S. decision last week to lock out Russia, Germany and France — all opponents of the war — from bidding on $18.6 billion in U.S.-financed reconstruction projects in Iraq.

De Villepin said his country wants to work with members of the Paris Club, a group of creditor nations that includes the United States, to find a level of debt that is "compatible with the financial capacities of Iraq."

"France could envisage the cancellation of appropriate debts," he said.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov also said an agreement on debt restructuring was possible.

In all, Iraq owes some $40 billion to the United States, France, Germany, Japan, Russia and other countries among 19 nations that belong to the Paris Club, an umbrella organization that conducts debt negotiations. At least an additional $80 billion is owed to other Arab countries and nations outside the Paris Club.

More for Halliburton: $222 million of Iraq work

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military announced yesterday that Halliburton, the company formerly headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, was allocated $222 million more last week for work in Iraq, at the same time as a Pentagon audit found the firm may have overbilled it $61 million for gasoline used in Iraq.

Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root has now clocked up $2.26 billion under its March no-bid contract with the Army Corps of Engineers to rebuild Iraq's oil sector.

Corps of Engineers spokesman Bob Faletti said a new task order was made for KBR last week for the "restoration of essential infrastructure." He said this work order would be paid for by money from the Development Fund for Iraq and not from $18.6 billion in new funds Congress appropriated to rebuild Iraq. The fund is supported by the sale of Iraqi crude oil and is designated only for rebuilding that country.

Faletti said Congress had specified that new funding for Iraq should not be used for contracts that were not competitively bid, such as the deal with KBR.

Missile expert cooperating; did not flee as U.S. feared

BAGHDAD, Iraq — An Iraqi scientist who headed Saddam Hussein's missile program has been meeting with the British military in Iraq and says he didn't flee to Iran as believed by U.S. weapons hunters.

Weapons inspectors said last month they were concerned that Modher Sadeq-Saba al-Tamimi had crossed to Iran on foot and was providing expertise to that nation's missile program.

Al-Tamimi said yesterday that he had tried several times to reach the U.S. teams searching for weapons of mass destruction. Once, in July, he said, he asked a friend who had already met with American missile experts to set up a meeting for him, but the Americans never showed up. Later, he said, his British handlers assured him that they had discussed his case with the CIA, and he didn't need to worry about reaching them.

He said a four-person team from the United States had interviewed him in the past month.

Al-Tamimi is considered Iraq's top missile expert. He was the father of the Iraqi Al-Samoud program and worked on Scuds like the ones that hit Israel and Saudi Arabia during the 1991 Gulf War.

Official: Iran trying to keep fighters from crossing to Iraq

MADRID — Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said yesterday that his government is trying to tighten its border controls to stop anti-U.S. fighters slipping into Iraq.

"Certainly we will do our best not to allow any terrorist element to use Iranian territory," he said.

Kharrazi also said there had been cases of arrests of Iraqis crossing the border into Iran, and that some had been turned over to Kurdish authorities in Iraq.

The United States has laid increasing blame on foreign fighters for a wave of violence in postwar Iraq.

Man confesses to attack that hurt Americans in Kuwait

KUWAIT CITY — A man arrested after a drive-by shooting yesterday has confessed to the shooting and attacks a day earlier on two U.S. military convoys, Kuwaiti officials said.

Yesterday's shooting wounded five foreign workers outside Shuaiba, a port used by American forces. The Interior Ministry official said the workers were from India, Egypt and Syria.

Four U.S. soldiers were wounded, all by flying glass, in the attacks Sunday.

Kuwait is a major U.S. ally in the Persian Gulf and was the launch pad of the war that toppled Saddam Hussein in April. U.S. forces have been targeted here several times, mostly by Muslim fundamentalists.

Saddam's capture a boost to Bush, betting site says

DUBLIN, Ireland — The capture of Saddam Hussein increased the chances of President Bush being re-elected next year to 70.7 percent, up 6 percent, an Irish-based online-betting exchange said yesterday.

The Web site www.Tradesports.com gained notoriety during the U.S.-led war by offering online gamblers the opportunity to place wagers on how long the conflict would last and whether weapons of mass destruction would be found.

Gamblers were also able to bet on when Saddam would be captured.

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