ARAB-EUROPEAN RELATIONS - July 12 - EU Considers Zebari's Request For Aid.

Meeting for the first time with the EU, Baghdad's FM Hoshyar Zebari, receives a positive response from his European counterparts, when asked for help in training police officers and administrators and in institution-building for the country's newly sovereign but unelected government. He added that the EU was already the largest humanitarian donor to his country and called for the EU to increase its "visibility" in Iraq. The US and other individual states have much greater presence. He said: "An office of the EU in Baghdad would be welcomed by the Iraqi people". The European Commission's local HQ's is in Amman, Jordan, because of security concerns. EU officials said the meeting was as an initial exchange of views and that the next step would probably be a meeting at the UN General Assembly in September. They played down suggestions that EU help for Iraq could be restricted because of the country's expected reintroduction of the death penalty. The EU is opposed to the death penalty. Chairing the meeting, Dutch FM Bot said: "We will be able to help in a civilian way to train the police force and to be helpful in building up administrative capacity. What is first necessary is that we have a further dialogue". Zebari is expected to outline a similar list of demands - and receive a similar response - during his trip to NATO. (NATO's promise to train Iraq's security forces, made at the Istanbul summit June 28-29, remains ambiguous, largely because of French resistance to training the forces within Iraq. A preparatory NATO expedition to Iraq is expected to report back on July 17).