U.N. to help Iraq rebuild wrecked Shi'ite shrine

PARIS (Reuters) - The United Nations has agreed to help Iraq rebuild the al-Askari shrine in the city of Samarra that was badly damaged in separate attacks last year and earlier this month, UNESCO said on Tuesday.

A memorandum of understanding was signed in Jordan on Sunday, UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization said. A spokesman said $8.4 million had been budgeted for the work, of which $3 million (1.5 million pounds) would come from the Iraqi government with the rest coming from UN funds.

The al-Askari Mosque, also known as the Golden Mosque, one of the four major Shi'ite shrines in Iraq, was badly damaged on June 13 in an attack which destroyed two minarets that had survived an earlier attack on February 22, 2006.

The bombing of the mosque last year, which wrecked the shrine's famous golden dome but did not damage the minarets, was a turning point for Iraq, unleashing sectarian violence that has killed tens of thousands of people.

Two of the 12 revered Shi'ite imams are buried in the Samarra shrine -- Imam Ali al-Hadi, who died in 868 and his son, the 11th imam, Hasan al-Askari, who died in 874.

Reconstruction work, expected to take 10 months, would begin "as soon as security conditions are guaranteed", the UNESCO statement said.

No reconstruction of the shrine has taken place, partly because of disagreements between Shi'ites and Sunnis over how the work will be carried out. The Iraqi government blamed al Qaeda for the 2006 attack.