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5 July 2006 - Saudi Arabia has agreed to provide Iraq with a loan worth around $125m to upgrade the country's shattered power grid, Iraqi officials said Monday.
Iraq's new Electricity Minister Kareem Wahid signed an agreement in Riyadh with his Saudi counterpart. The money would be spent supplying Iraq with equipment to upgrade Iraq's electricity network.
Wahid was part of a delegation headed by Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki which visited Saudi Arabia during the weekend. The officials gave no details on the terms of the loan.
Meanwhile, Iraq's senior deputy electricity minister Raad Al Haris and 19 of his bodyguards were abducted at gunpoint by a gang of men who ambushed their convoy in eastern Baghdad Tuesday. The gunman released the group some ten hours later.
Al Haris had been travelling in a convoy near Baghdad's Shia Sadr City district at 7.30 am (0330 GMT) when gunmen, using nine four-wheel-drive vehicles and wearing military uniforms, blocked their way and kidnapped them, police said.
Iraq's power production capacity currently stands at 4000 megawatts to 5000 mw, which is well below projected peak summer demand of more than 8000 MW, according to a report by the US Energy Information Administration.
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