United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday that creditor nations including Britain, Saudi Arabia and China had pledged to waive $30bn of Iraqi debt, approximately 60 per cent of what Baghdad estimates it owes other countries.

Mr Ban spoke at the end of the first day of a two-day conference in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh dealing with the UN-sponsored International Compact with Iraq, which aims at winning international support to stabilize and rebuild Iraq.