by Lamia Radi
CAIRO, July 21 (AFP) - Iraq called on its neighbours on Wednesday for help in tackling the country's chronic insecurity, saying it wanted joint security cooperation to protect their common borders.
"We expect our neighbours to stand behind the Iraqi people and give more than words to help restablish sovereignty for a peaceful Iraq," Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told reporters ahead of a meeting with regional counterparts.
Iraq's three-week-old government is struggling to contain a bloody insurgency causing bloodshed almost daily and is seeking help to stop foreign fighters coming in from neighbouring countries.
"We have ideas and proposals that we'll present to the Arab and Islamic countries that are specific to security issues, especially with regard to border and joint security cooperation in order to protect the common borders," Zebari said.
Wednesday's meeting is the first time the ministers from Iraq, its neighbours Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iran and Turkey, as well as host Egypt, have met since the US-led occupation transferred power to an interim government last month.
Both the caretaker government of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and the US-led forces still in Iraq have blamed most of the attacks on foreign fighters and those allegedly linked to Al-Qaeda such as Jordanian-born Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi.
Baghdad and Washington have repeatedly accused Syria and Iran in particular of failing to stop insurgents from entering Iraq to carry out attacks which have plagued it since the downfall of Saddam Hussein in April last year.
In his opening remarks at the meeting, Egyptian Foreign Affairs Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit called on participants to condemn violence against Iraqi civilians, the seizing of hostages and attacks against Iraqi institutions and diplomatic missions.
"These actions will not dissuade Iraqi's neighbours and the international community from helping in the reconstruction of Iraq," he said, referring to the continuing security problems in the country.
Hostage-taking has resulted in several companies pulling out of Iraq, or scaling down their workforce, despite lucrative contracts for reconstruction. The latest firm was a Saudi company which announced it was leaving in order to save the life of one of its employees, an Egyptian driver.
Abul Gheit also urged Iraq's neighbours not to interfere in its internal affairs and emphasized the need for a bigger and stronger role for the UN as Iraqis grapple with the issue of security.
The new government is encouraging Arab and Islamic countries to contribute troops to the multinational force in Iraq, but has made clear it would prefer Iraq's neighbours not to participate.
Allawai was joining the foreign ministers for lunch and was also holding talks with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who is on a tour of the Middle East.
UN chief Kofi Annan's special representative for Iraq, Lakhdar Brahimi, is also sitting in on the discussions.
On Wednesday, Solana held talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi as well as with Zebari.
"We discussed the way in which everyone together could guarantee the stability and security of Iraq as the process of recovering its sovereignty unfolds according to the planned timetable," Solana said after his talks.