EU: No date change for Iraq donors' conference

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, October 10, 2003

EU: No date change for Iraq donors' conference

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An international donors' meeting on Iraq will be held as planned later this month even if the United Nations cannot agree on a resolution on the country's political future, the European Union's executive arm, the European Commission, said Thursday.

"As far as we are concerned, the dates are unchanged," the commission's spokeswoman, Emma Udwin, told a news conference in response to German officials remarks that they were seeking to postpone the October 23-24 Madrid conference.

"Is there any point of going ahead without a UN resolution? Yes, there is," she said. "We can't wait for there to be a perfect peace in Iraq to decide what we'd like to do to help the people of Iraq."

Earlier, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said it was up to Spain whether to go ahead with the meeting as planned. "The Spanish government is the one to take a decision," he said.

In Madrid, a spokesman for Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar said Spain would host the conference as planned. "We don't have any news (of postponement) and are going ahead as planned."

The United States has been pressing its allies for big donations to help the reconstruction of Iraq but resisted calls by France, Germany, Russia and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to amend a draft Security Council resolution to give the United Nations and Iraqis a bigger say now.

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