Iraq is expected to ask its Arab neighbours to cancel billions of dollars in debt at an international conference on Thursday that will look at progress on a five-year plan to rebuild the country.
The Stockholm conference is the first annual review of the International Compact with Iraq agreed in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh last year which committed Iraq to implement reforms in exchange for greater international support.
Opening the conference, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon lauded the Iraqi government for making "notable progress" in meeting economic, political and security benchmarks set at last year's conference in Egypt.
"If we had to use one word to describe the situation in Iraq today I would choose ... hope," he said. "There is new hope that the people and government of Iraq are overcoming daunting challenges and working together to rebuild their country."
While security has improved in Iraq, with U.S. officials saying violence is at a four-year low, political progress has been much slower, with national reconciliation mired in sectarian tensions between Iraq's Shi'ite and Sunni sects.
The main Sunni Arab political bloc, which quit the government in August, said on Wednesday it suspended talks to rejoin Maliki's Shi'ite-led administration after a disagreement over a cabinet post.
Sweden said on Monday that 97 delegations including 500 to 600 political leaders would attend the one-day conference in Stockholm, including Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and representatives from Arab countries such as Egypt and Syria.
In a 75-page progress report to the conference, oil-rich Iraq stressed it was not looking for money from the international community but for technical help to get its economy back on its feet after decades of wars and sanctions.
