WASHINGTON, June 17: US President George W. Bush on Saturday urged other nations to make good on $13 billion in pledges to help the new Iraqi government.
“We will encourage other nations to fulfil the monetary pledges they have already made to help the new Iraqi government succeed,” said Mr Bush in his weekly radio address.
The international community promised about $13 billion, but so far only about $3 billion has been paid out.
US diplomats will go to Asia, Europe and the Middle East to prod donors, some of whom fear their money will be used for security rather than reconstruction.
Mr Bush also spoke of his recent trip to Baghdad and reviewed the situation in Iraq at the end of a week that saw heated congressional debate on the war.
A Republican resolution in the US House of Representatives, passed on Friday, emphasised that it was not ‘national security interest of the US’ to set a withdrawal deadline. An amendment in the Senate sought such a deadline but was tabled on a 93-6 vote.
As many as 42 Democrats crossed the party line to vote against the proposed withdrawal in the House of Representatives. Some justified the vote by saying that despite a rising death toll and spiralling war costs, most Americans did not want to abandon Iraq midstream.
