Iraq's Maliki hopes Kuwait will write off debt

KUWAIT (Reuters) - Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki voiced hope that Kuwait would write off loans extended to Baghdad under the rule of Saddam Hussein, the official Kuwaiti news agency KUNA said on Tuesday.

Maliki said after talks with Kuwaiti officials that he hoped Kuwait's parliament "would not stop at the barrier of debt from which the Iraqi people did not benefit," KUNA reported.

"We know that Kuwait is a country of institutions and that there is a legislative requirement for dropping the Kuwaiti debts," Maliki added.

Iraq's debt to Kuwait is estimated at about $15-16 billion.

Saudi Arabia said last week it had decided to write off 80 percent of the more than $15 billion it is owed by Iraq.

The United States has been pressing Iraq's creditors to follow Washington's lead and write off debt they are owed by Iraq as part of efforts to help the country rebuild after Saddam was ousted by the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

Some Kuwaiti parliamentarians have said their oil-exporting neighbour should pay back its debt. Both countries are members of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

Iraq invaded Kuwait under the rule of Saddam in 1990 and occupied it for seven months.

Maliki, who is in Kuwait on a two-day visit, held talks with Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah and Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammad al-Ahmed al-Sabah.