WASHINGTON (AFP) — Iraq's ambassador to the United States insisted Sunday his government was doing more to pay its own way as angry Democrats in Congress push to cut US funding for reconstruction.
Samir Sumaidaie told CNN: "We are taking over as fast as we can. We are taking over on the construction side. We are taking over on the security side.
"And as time goes on, the money spent by the Americans on reconstruction or on our arms (armed) services will come down to zero and we'll take on the full load," he said.
Democrats say that with Iraq profiting from booming oil prices, its government is letting billions of dollars sit idle in US bank accounts as Washington spends up to 12 billion dollars a month in the country.
The Senate's armed services committee has proposed banning US funds for all large-scale projects in Iraq costing above two million dollars, demanding Baghdad assume a larger share of reconstruction costs.
The committee's Democratic chairman, Carl Levin, said on May 1 that it "is unconscionable, it is inexcusable, it makes no common sense" for Iraq's government not to be spending more of its own funds.
Sumaidaie said his government would willingly shell out more on major projects but "there are no qualified international companies coming forward to do them, because of the security situation."
"Plus, we have our own capacity problems within our administration. The government is not yet well organized enough to spend the money under the right kind of controls," the ambassador said.
"So we have our own frustrations."
Sumaidaie said Iraq was already paying the United States for weapons and supplies to its armed forces, and this year hoped to spend 80 percent of available budget funds in general, up from just 20 percent in 2006.
"But let us be very, very clear. The amount of money that Iraqis and the country need to rebuild itself and to stabilize itself are multiple times the amount of money we have available," he stressed.
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