Egypt and Iraq signed an electricity cooperation deal Saturday, the Egyptian news agency MENA reported.
The agreement signed by Egyptian Electricity Minister Ali al-Saidi and his Iraqi counterpart Salah Yussef allows for an exchange of skills and information concerning the upkeep of power stations, the agency said.
It also covers technical cooperation on electricity distribution and training of Iraqi engineers and technicians in Egypt, MENA said.
"Private Egyptian companies specialized in the working of electricity networks are ready to contribute in renovating the electricity networks of the Iraqi capital Baghdad," the agency quoted al-Saidi as saying.
Economic links between Cairo and Baghdad have developed over the last three years despite the break in diplomatic relations between the two countries since the Gulf War of 1991.
The volume of Egyptian exports to Iraq should reach 1.2 billion dollars this year against 400 million in 1999, Egyptian Economics Minister Yussef Boutros Ghali said at the end of August.
Egypt exports mainly cereals, sugar, medicines, medical equipment and cars.
Since the launch of the "oil for food" program at the end of 1996, Egypt is considered to be an important trading partner of Iraq.
Cairo regularly calls for a lifting of the international sanctions on Iraq which were imposed after its invasion of Kuwait in August 1990 – CAIRO (AFP)
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