International negotiations on debt relief for Iraq are in deadlock, a German official said on Wednesday, while another official said Germany would probably have to write off more than half of its $5.3 billion credits to Iraq.
"They (the United States) want to pull this through this year and are putting on pressure," one government official said.
"It's in complete deadlock," a different official said.
A third official said that the German position of writing off no more than half of Iraq's debt was under review.
"We will probably have to move towards two-thirds," he said.
But other government sources said the position was still to waive about half of Iraq's pre-war debt to Germany of $2.4 billion which has risen to $5.3 billion including interest.
Washington has been campaigning for a rapid write-off of almost all of Iraq's foreign debt.
Germany's official stance is the offer of "substantial" debt relief while France has insisted on no more than a 50 percent debt write-off in the first instance.
The International Monetary Fund puts Iraq's total pre-war debt at $120 billion, some $40 billion of which is debt and arrears to the 19 countries in the Paris Club of creditor nations. Washington wants them to waive as much as 95 percent.
The United States is only the fifth-biggest creditor nation, surpassed by Japan, Russia, France and Germany.