Total cost reportedly $70-to-$100 billion, up from $60 billion from a 2003 estimate

BAGHDAD, March 24, 2006 -- The head of the U.S.-led program to rebuild Iraq said Thursday that the Iraqi government can no longer count on U.S. funds and must rely on its own revenues and other foreign aid, particularly from Persian Gulf nations.

"The Iraqi government needs to build up its capability to do its own capital budget investment," Daniel Speckhard, director of the U.S. Iraq Reconstruction Management Office, said.

The burden of paying for reconstruction poses an extraordinary challenge for a country that needs tens of billions of dollars for repairing its infrastructure at the same time it's struggling to pay its bills.

Iraq's deputy finance minister, Kamal Field al-Basri, said it was "reasonable" for the United States to sharply cut back its reconstruction efforts after spending about $21 billion.

"We should be very much dependent on ourselves," al-Basri said.
Anthony Cordesman, a Middle East expert at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, called the U.S. reconstruction effort "a dismal failure. It hasn't met any of its goals. It's left a legacy of half-built projects, built to U.S. standards, which Iraq doesn't have the capability to maintain."

Al-Basri said Iraq needs to increase its capacity to produce oil, which generates 93 percent of government's revenues.
The total rebuilding cost is now $70 billion to $100 billion -- up from a $60 billion World Bank estimate in 2003, Speckhard said.


Also in Iraq

• Attacks analyzed: In a rundown of recent military activity, Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the U.S. military spokesman, said Thursday in Baghdad that most violence was focused in three of the country's 18 provinces. "There is not widespread violence across Iraq. There is not. Seventy-five percent of the attacks still take place in Baghdad, al-Anbar or Salaheddin (provinces)."

• Deadly bombings: At least 58 people were killed in execution-style slayings, bombings and gun battles throughout Iraq. For the third straight day, Sunni insurgents hit a major police and jail facility -- this time with a noontime suicide car bombing that killed 25 in central Baghdad. The attacker detonated explosives at the entrance to the Interior Ministry Major Crimes unit, killing 10 civilians and 15 policemen, authorities said.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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