Iraq and Egypt signed an accord in Baghdad Tuesday to boost land, sea and air transportation links, including more frequent Egyptian flights to Baghdad, the official news agency INA reported.
Under the cooperation accord, they will step up road and rail transport links via Jordan for passengers and goods and set up a joint road transportation company to increase trade, it said.
They also agreed "to increase the number of Egyptian flights to Iraq," despite a UN air traffic embargo, and study the creation of a joint shipping firm and the construction of new berths at the Iraqi ports of Um Qasr and Khor Al-Zubair.
The accord was signed at the end of a joint commission meeting chaired by Iraq's Commerce Minister Mohammad Mehdi Saleh and Egyptian Economy Minister Yussef Boutros-Ghali, who flew in at the head of a 180-member business delegation.
Trade between Egypt and Iraq has soared over the past two years. In 2000, Baghdad was Cairo's top export market after the United States, with goods worth 1.2 billion dollars shipped to Iraq.
On January 18, the two Arab states signed a free trade accord. — (AFP, Baghdad)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
