Bank mulls Iraq rebuilding plan

By Andrew Walker BBC economics correspondent in Dubai

World Bank officials holding their annual meetings in Dubai have begun setting out the priorities for rebuilding the Iraqi economy - a country that was once moderately well-off.

Experts say reconstruction could take 10 years

They are what a World Bank official called "the immediate emergency problems" - fixing the roads, the water supply and the power.

But taking a longer perspective, the most important thing in the Bank's thinking is creating institutions.

The issue, according to a Bank official, is not so much buildings as the capacity for institutions to provide basic services.

And it really is a question of basics as Iraq is well short of meeting international objectives - the millennium development goals - for reducing poverty.

ESTIMATED REBUILDING COSTS Utilities: $10-15bn just for electricity and telecoms Oil and gas industry: $35-40bn Healthcare: $10-20bn Education: $6-12bn Source: McKinsey Iraq rebuilding 'could cost $90bn' Q&A: Iraq's ongoing shortages

"The basic fundamental services that a government is expected to provide should be considered the base line for our work," World Bank's director for a group of Middle Eastern countries Joseph Saba said.

"I mean obviously access to clean water, access to basic education, maternal health," he added.

It is an indication of the extent of Iraq's economic decline that it needs such basic help.

By the late 1970s the country had developed to such an extent that it was no longer eligible for financial assistance from the World Bank.

It is exceptionally difficult for the Bank to press ahead just now.

It has no officials in Iraq following the attack on the United Nations building in Baghdad.

One World Bank official was killed and three injured, and it is not clear when any of its staff will go back.