Europe and the US have set aside differences over the Iraq war to rally international support for that country's reconstruction and to press for the minority Sunni population to be involved in shaping Iraq's future.
At a conference in Brussels yesterday, co-hosted by the EU and the US, almost 80 countries promised to support a "democratic, pluralist, federal and unified Iraq" and to encourage its economic recovery and reconstruction.
Iraq's prime minister Ibrahim Jafari appealed for help in fighting insurgents, describing the violence that has killed more than 1,000 people since his government took office in April as a struggle between good and evil.
"We want to achieve economic and political independence and raise the competence of our security forces without turning into a security state," he said.
A joint statement at the end of the meeting called on all parties to work with the Iraqi authorities to bring an end to the violence and urged Iraq's neighbours to strengthen security co-operation.
The Iraqi government said it would meet an August 15th deadline for drawing up a new constitution, but asked for more help from UN legal experts with the drafting.
Luxembourg foreign minister Jean Asselborn, whose country holds the EU presidency, said it was important the new constitution should be based on a nationwide consensus. "Efforts should be continued to reach out to all segments of Iraqi society and namely to all Iraqis willing to renounce violence, in order to promote a genuinely inclusive political process as well as national reconciliation," he said.
US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice said the international community wanted to support the transitional government in Baghdad, but added that the new Iraq must be inclusive.
"The new Iraqi government must continue to improve security, liberalise its economy and open political space for all members of Iraqi society who reject violence," she said.
Yesterday's conference was organised after US president George Bush's visit to Brussels earlier this year and is seen by diplomats as a sign of warmer transatlantic relations.
Germany's foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, said the two sides had moved beyond differences over the war in their approach to Iraq. "A democratic process is taking place that is vital for us, whether you were against the war or not," he said.
The joint statement called for generous debt relief for Iraq, which inherited more than €100 billion in debt from the Saddam era, mainly for financing the Iran-Iraq war.
The Paris Club of mostly western creditor countries last year agreed to write off 80 per cent of Iraq's debt but Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, Baghdad's biggest creditors, have yet to follow suit.
Despite its expression of support for Iraq, yesterday's conference produced little in financial support, leaving the details of financial help to a donors' conference in Jordan next month.
Iraq's finance minister Ali Allawi complained that financial aid had so far been sparse and slow in coming. "The flow of grants and loans from the international community has not been within the expected levels," he said.
Ms Rice complained that Syria was not doing enough to prevent insurgents crossing into Iraq but Syrian foreign minister Farouq al-Shara said Washington was to blame for refusing to allow Damascus to buy sophisticated border monitoring equipment.