An international donors' conference for the reconstruction of Iraq opened in Tokyo on Wednesday morning with five Iraqi ministers ready to pledge their commitment to rebuilding the country before representatives from about 55 countries and organizations.

This is the first international conference on the issue since the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority handed over sovereignty to Iraqis from on June 28.

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih and four other ministers, including Minister of Planning and Development Cooperation Mehdi Hafedh, attended the two-day conference.

The Iraqi ministers are expected to unveil a set of goals they planned to achieve in the process of the country's reconstruction at the meeting, officially called the Donor Committee Meeting of the International Reconstruction Fund Facility for Iraq.

Later Wednesday, senior working-level officials from the countries and organizations will review various assistance measures that donor countries have provided for Iraq since an international meeting on the issue was held in Madrid, Spain last October.

They are expected to discuss the security and political situations in Iraq during the first-day session.

Countries that are widely seen as potential donors, such as Germany, France, Russia and some Arab countries, will join the session later Wednesday.

Thursday's discussion will be limited to donor countries, which planned to discuss how to utilize the fund. Major donors are the European Union and 13 countries including Japan that have each committed more than 10 million US dollars.

Similar conferences were held in Abu Dhabi in February and Dohain May.

Source: Xinhua