U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says that several countries have pledged aid for Iraq including writing off 30-billion dollars of the Middle Eastern country's debt during a global summit under way in Egypt.

Creditors who will reduce Iraq's debt burden include Bulgaria, China, Saudi Arabia and Greece.
Korea, Britain, Spain and Denmark will provide additional aid to the war-torn country.

The U.N. chief presided over the meeting, which opened Thursday to mark the launch of a five-year peace and development plan known as the International Compact with Iraq.

Previously, the Paris Club, which consists of the world’s richest 19 Western creditors, had agreed in 2004 to provide debt relief to Iraq amounting to 32 billion dollars.