Iran and Iraq in war missing deal

Hundreds of thousands are still missing from the eight-year war

Iran and Iraq have signed an agreement to search for missing persons from the bitter eight-year war they fought in the 1980s, the Red Cross says.

It said both countries had agreed to share information and would hand over any remains that were found.

It is not known how many people are missing, but some estimates put the figure in hundreds of thousands.

Delegates from Iraq and Iran signed the document at the Red Cross headquarters in Geneva, the aid agency said.

It was the first time the two neighbours signed a direct agreement to work together on the issue, having dealt separately with the Red Cross until now.

The agreement represents "an important step toward easing the heavy burden of thousands of bereaved Iraqi and Iranian families," said a spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) .

Around a million people were killed in the 1980-1988 war, with thousands of prisoners captured on both sides.

Iran's official reports suggest at least 8,000 Iranians are unaccounted for. Iraq's Ministry of Human Rights says the Iraqi figure ranges from 375,000 to one million.

In total, the ICRC says it has helped repatriate some 97,000 prisoners of war (POWs) since the end of the war.

Twenty years after the end of the war, families on both sides continue to search for records of their loved ones in hospitals, morgues and police stations.