Iraq seeks forgiveness of Saddam Hussein's 'odious' debts

Iraq will continue to press its neighbours and the world to forgive billions of dollars in debt accrued by former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, an Iraqi lawmaker said Sunday.
"The Ministry of Finance and the parliament will move to close the file of Iraq's national debt completely by asking countries to cancel 100 per cent of it," Iraqi legislator Ahmed al-Alwani told Baghdad's al-Sabbah newspaper in remarks published Sunday.
By the time the US-led invasion toppled Saddam's government in 2003, the former president had racked up an estimated 300 billion dollars in national debt, including hundreds of billions in reparations to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia for damages caused in the first Gulf War and unpaid contracts.
Iraq now pays 5 per cent of the proceeds from its oil exports to make those reparation payments. Al-Sabbah said the Iraqi government would campaign in the coming days and weeks to get those payments reduced.