Japan and Iraq agreed Tuesday that Tokyo will extend financial and technical support for oil and natural gas projects in the war-ravaged country, which intends to expand oil production capacity to 2 million barrels per day next year, a Japanese official said.
Visiting Iraqi Oil Minister Ibrahim Bahr al-Ulum and Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Toshihiro Nikai signed a joint statement in which Tokyo pledged to consider financing three oil and gas projects in Iraq with yen loans, and train in Japan 1,000 Iraqi engineers in the energy sector for two years from 2006.
Japan is the first country to seal a detailed accord on oil and gas projects with Iraq after the war, the official said.
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