Bush defends policy on Iraq contracts

WASHINGTON – President Bush, under fire from allies, said Thursday that countries which sent troops to Iraq should be entitled to share in the $18 billion in American-financed reconstruction projects while other nations are shut out.

Bush’s policy effectively excludes countries such as Russia, France, Germany and Canada.

The president, at a Cabinet meeting, said he still hoped that Russia, France, Germany and others would agree to forgive Iraq’s crushing debt burden.

“It would be a significant contribution for which we would be very grateful,” Bush said, talking with reporters at the end of a Cabinet meeting at the White House.

But Bush appeared to make a sharp distinction between countries that sent troops to Iraq and those that didn’t.

“What I’m saying is, in the expenditure of the taxpayers’ money … the U.S. people, the taxpayers, understand why it makes sense for countries that risked lives to participate in the contracts in Iraq. It’s very simple. Our people risked their lives, friendly coalition folks risked their lives and therefore the contracting is going to reflect that.”

Sen. John Kerry, campaigning in his home state of Massachusetts for the Democratic presidential nomination, said, “I think limiting contracts … is an enormous mistake. I think it borders on the stupid.”

In a series of telephone conversations Wednesday, Bush talked with the leaders of Russia, France and Germany to ask them to forgive Iraq’s debts. He said he would be sending former Secretary of State James A. Baker as an emissary to talk about Iraq’s debt relief. The leaders used the conversations to air their concerns about the contracting policy.

Baker will visit Russia, Britain, France, Italy and Germany.

The White House sought to refocus the debate on Iraq’s multibillion-dollar debt load.

“The whole restructuring debt issue is an important priority for the Iraqi people,” presidential spokesman Scott McClellan said. “We all share the same goal of helping the Iraqi people build a better and brighter future, and they should not be saddled with the debt of a brutal regime that was more interested in using funds to build palaces and build torture chambers and brutalize the Iraqi people.”

Baker leaves Monday for the trip, which McClellan characterized as “an initial fact-finding mission.” It will bring him back before the holidays, the spokesman said.

McClellan had reiterated earlier Thursday that the administration had no intention of rethinking the policy, but said that Bush “made it very clear that we would keep the lines of communication open.”