Iraq asks Kuwait to forgo compensation

BAGHDAD, Jan. 10 (UPI) -- Iraq asked the Kuwaiti government Tuesday to waive payment of additional compensation for the 1990 invasion.

Aziz Muhammad Jaafar of the Iraqi Finance Ministry said that $1.5 billion in the 2007 budget or 5 percent of the total has been earmarked to pay Kuwait, KUNA, the Kuwait National News Agency, reported. He said the compensation had been ordered by the U.N. Security Council.

Jaafar asked Kuwait to give up compensation as a "gesture of solidarity with the suffering Iraqi people."

Haidar Al-Ibadi, who heads the Iraqi Parliamentary Economy Committee, suggested that countries who supported Saddam Hussein could help pay the damages.