The Paris Club announced Sunday that its member countries agreed to cut 80 percent of the debts Iraq owes them and called on other creditors to follow suit.

The debts erased by the club totaled 33 billion US dollars, said club president Jean-Pierre Jouyet at a press conference.

It is now essential for other creditors to take similarly actions, he added.

Jouyet said that under the agreement, 30 percent of the debts will be forgiven immediately, another 30 percent will be waived, depending on the implementation of an International Monetary Fund reform program, and the rest of 20 percent will be cut in the second quarter of 2008.

At the press conference, Iraqi Finance Minister Adel Abdul-Mehdi said Iraq will begin talks with other creditors on the issue this year.

According to statistics released by the IMF, Iraq's foreign debts totaled 120 billion dollars, including 42 billion dollars belonging to club members.

The Paris Club, set up in 1961, is an informal multilateral group of official creditors whose role is to find co-ordinated and sustainable solutions to payment difficulties experienced by debtor nations.

The club consists of Australia, Austria, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Japan, The Netherlands, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States.