Madain, a town of some 7,000 inhabitants, was founded by the Parthian King Mithridates I more than 2,000 years ago.

It now lies between the two main highways linking the capital with southern Iraq, as do historical sites such as the Arch of Ctesiphon and the tomb of Salman Pak one of the companions of the Prophet Mohammed.

"We want to restore life to this place and make it one of the beautiful places for tourism," said Abdelhadi Hassan, director of antiquities in the town, 30 kilometres (18 miles) south of Baghdad.

He said that both Iraqis and foreigners used to visit the gardens and parks in the town.

"Because of negligence the gardens and parks disappeared," he said. Maintenance work was stopped "because of the wars of the former regime."

Postcards from the 1970s show luxuriant gardens and arbours, but today there is little foliage because the irrigation pipes were destroyed and the trees were cut down for firewood by inhabitants during the 1980-1988 Iraq-Iran war.