WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Despite persistent security problems, the United States aims by the end of next month to have reliable power in Baghdad, open the city's airport and have Iraq's main port ready to handle bulk cargo, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday.
In a public briefing on progress so far in rebuilding Iraq, the U.S. Agency for International Development said it was working hard to deliver on promises made to rebuild Iraq but the country was still a dangerous place to work in.
"You still hear gunfire at night in the cities. There are carjackings that happen daily, people are assaulted for things as simple as a truckload of water," Ross Wherry, USAID's senior reconstruction advisor for Asia and the Near East, told reporters after the briefing.
Wherry said USAID, the leading U.S. agency handing out contracts to rebuild Iraq, had been surprised by the level of violence and looting following the toppling of Saddam Hussein in April and that the difficult security situation was increasing operating costs in Iraq.
He said USAID hoped to have the southern port of Umm Qasr ready for big cargo vessels by the end of this month when a 40,000 ton bulk grain vessel was set to unload its goods.
He said he hoped there would be a more reliable power source by the end of July in Baghdad, which is stiflingly hot during the summer and where electricity has been rationed most days to three hours on and three hours off.
Other goals were to reopen Baghdad's airport by July 15 and to ensure that Iraq's children were back in class at the beginning of the new school year in October, an important symbol for Iraqis that life was returning to normal.
He said a grant had been awarded to UNESCO for 5 million new math and science textbooks and discussions were continuing among Iraqis to rewrite the curriculum and to deal with history and other more politically sensitive text books.
He foresaw USAID would be involved in Iraq until 2005. "I don't see us cutting and running on this one," he said.
Iraqi looters carry copper cables in Basra June 12, 2003. Despite persistent security problems, the U.S. aims by the end of next month to have reliable power in Baghdad, open the city's airport and have Iraq's main port ready to handle bulk cargo, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday. In a public briefing on progress so far in rebuilding Iraq, the U.S. Agency for International Development said it was working hard to deliver on promises made to rebuild Iraq but the country was still a dangerous place to work in.