The conference will be hosted jointly by the EU and by the US. Hopes are pinned on making progress towards the resolution of a number of issues outlined in the UN security council’s resolution number 1546, namely to create for the conditions for the development of a political process in the conflict-ridden country, to meet the economic challenges of the current situation and bring reconstruction forward, and to establish public order and the rule of law.
The hosts will be the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; Javier Solana, EU high representative for the common foreign and security policy; and the current Council President Jean-Claude Juncker. Among the guests will be UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, a high-ranking Iraqi delegation including eight ministers of the interim government and possibly also Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari, and the foreign ministers of all EU countries, of China, Japan, India, Iran and a large number of other countries, as well as representatives of many international organisations involved in Iraq.
