Iraq seeks to triple Haj numbers

Iraq says it has decided to triple the number of pilgrims going to Mecca, and will ask the United Nations to allow it to finance the expansion out of the existing oil-for-food arrangement.

The official Iraqi news agency says three-thousand Iraqis will be allowed to go to Mecca early next year.

Under a formula followed by Muslim nations, Iraq has a quota of 22,000 pilgrims that may perform the pilgrimage every year.

But since economic sanctions were imposed in 1990, the government has allowed only 1,000 citizens to travel to Saudi Arabia to save foreign exchange.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service