DUBAI, Sept 19: A delegation from the US-backed interim Iraqi government will attend as “special invitees” the annual meetings here of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, an IMF spokesman told AFP on Friday.

“They have requested to attend the meeting, they will come as special invitees,” said spokesman William Murray.

World Bank Vice President for Human Development Jean Louis Sarbib said the Iraqi delegation would hold meetings at the “highest level” with the bank and the IMF to discuss the country’s reconstruction needs.

Three high officials from the Iraqi interim government are part of the 28-member delegation to attend the September 23-24 meeting: Finance Minister Kamel al-Kilani, Planning Minister Mahdi al-Hafez and central bank governor Sinan al-Shebibi.

A representative of the US-led coalition, which retains ultimate responsibility in ruling Iraq, will also come to the meeting in the United Arab Emirates’ city of Dubai, World Bank director James Wolfensohn said.

The World Bank is preparing an assessment of Iraqi reconstruction needs to be discussed at an international donors’ conference in Madrid on October 23-24.

Sarbib said the World Bank has kept up contact with the Iraqi officials to prepare the report, despite the withdrawal of its staff from Baghdad following the August 19 bombing of the UN headquarters in the Iraqi capital.

A female Iraqi staffer with the World Bank died and all of the IMF’s six Iraq team members were injured in the blast at the UN headquarters that housed the offices of the two institutions.

“We are in regular contact with the Iraqi interim government and with the (US-led) Coalition Provisional Authority by a number of means. People are working together in Amman and we will certainly be in touch with them as we begin the finalisation of the needs assessment,” said Sarbib.

Wolfensohn said the World Bank’s role at this stage would be to help Iraq levy funds for reconstruction from the donors and provide advice, but not to fund projects directly.—AFP