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US economy heavily affected by Iraq war: Greenspan

AFP, Morelia, Mexico
The US economy is heavily influenced by the war in Iraq, US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said Sunday at the opening of the Group of 20 meeting on getting the global economy to grow at a brisker clip.
"The first thing is that it's obvious in the States that the economic development and the economy in general in the past years has been very strongly influenced by the war in Iraq," Greenspan said.
Greenspan addressed finance ministers and central bank governors from the G20 countries and the European Union, saying that the US economy has reacted to "conflicts and hostilities we're having."
The meeting was private, and the rest of Greenspan's speech was not immediately released to the media.
Later, a US Treasury official said that members of the G-20 were being asked to contribute funds toward the Iraq reconstruction effort.
Treasury Secretary John Snow "is talking to his counterparts about
the importance of rebuilding Iraq, and specifically about the Iraq debt," said spokesman Robert Nichols.
"One part of rebuilding efforts is the oppressive debt of Iraq."
Iraq has a foreign debt of 125 billion dollars and needs some 56 billion dollars worth of reconstruction after decades of war, dictatorship and international sanctions.
However, countries such as Germany and France preferred to focus G-20 discussions on mechanisms to fight terrorism financing, according to sources from both delegations.
"One issue is there are new ways to financing terrorists," said Ernest Welteke, German Bundesbank president: "Collecting money for social purposes and then not use it for social work."
G20, which includes 19 countries and the European Union, was set up in 1999 as a forum for industrialized countries and emerging markets to encourage financial stability.
"Our work ... should ... hopefully translate into practical contributions to increase financial stability and promote solid economic growth,"
Mexican Finance Minister Francisco Gil said.
He urged greater cooperation to counteract money laundering, fraud, tax evasion and other financial crimes.
The finance ministers and central bankers were set to discuss bolstering global economic growth, refinancing national debts, efforts to crack down on financing for terrorists, and the effects of globalization.
Other issues were also expected to surface on the sidelines of the meeting, including US complaints about China's exchange rate policy and Argentina's request for a massive write-off its foreign debt.
The two-day meeting is the first gathering of leading economic powers since the failure of trade liberalization talks at a World Trade Organization meeting in September in the Mexican resort of Cancun.
That meeting was meant to breathe life into moribund trade liberalization talks launched in Doha in November 2001 that are
due to conclude by January 1, 2005.
But five days of intensive discussions failed to yield consensus on such hot-button issues as the elimination agricultural export subsidies in industrialized nations, as demanded by developing countries, and proposals to extend the WTO mandate to such matters as cross-border investment, advocated by Japan and the EU.
The G20 includes the Group of Eight -- the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Canada and Russia -- plus Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, and the European Union.
The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank also joined the talks.
Taken together, the G20 represents more than 85 per cent of the world's gross domestic product and more than 60 per cent of its population.