A group of Iraqis visiting from the southern Iraqi city of Samawah thanked Japan on Thursday for the reconstruction work carried out by the Ground Self-Defense Force troops.

They asked Tokyo to expand the scope of reconstruction work and said they want private Japanese companies to join in as early as possible.

"There are two types of jobs here, one is to rebuild destroyed facilities, the other is to build new ones," doctor Bashar Abdul Sattar Sadiq told reporters during a news conference in Tokyo that was organized by the Tokyo Foundation, a private research institute.

He said the SDF is rebuilding facilities "very swiftly and accurately," but "to do larger work, we'd like private companies to come."

But he complained that local Iraqis often have trouble contacting Foreign Ministry officials stationed in Samawah. He said the officials are changed after a few months, meaning the ministry as a whole lacks understanding of the local situation.

The ministry said more than one official has served as coordinator in Samawah since the end of last year. The officials would not say how many or whether the ministry changes its personnel, citing security reasons.

Hassan Abdulamir Aldager, another Samawah doctor, said the security situation would become stable enough to accept unarmed people after forms of the new Iraqi government and the Constitution are agreed before the scheduled transfer of sovereignty on June 30.

The party, comprising two religious leaders, three doctors and two female elementary school teachers, is in Japan at the invitation of the government.

The members met key government figures, including Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, and visited a hospital and school in Tokyo.