UN envoy to Iraq rates joblessness and power shortages as priority problems

Unemployment, electricity cuts, medicine shortages and water quality are the most pressing humanitarian problems facing Iraq, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan's acting Special Representative for the country said after a two-day visit to Baghdad.

Ross Mountain left the Iraqi capital yesterday after completing his assessment of the country's major humanitarian and reconstruction issues, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard told reporters today in New York.

Mr. Mountain held talks with UN national staff in Baghdad, as well as the leadership of the Iraqi Governing Council and the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). He also met with L. Paul Bremer, the United States' Civil Administrator in Iraq, and his British deputy, Sir Jeremy Greenstock.

The envoy is now in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, to attend a conference where the International Reconstruction Facility for Iraq will be launched. The forum aims to allow governments to help rebuild Iraq's economy and infrastructure through projects administered by UN agencies and the World Bank.