Cheney, visiting Iraq, will push access for oil firms

BAGHDAD: Vice President Dick Cheney made an unannounced trip Monday to Baghdad, where he plans to push Iraqi political leaders toward opening the country’s vast oil fields to international companies, a senior Bush administration official said.

Cheney, who arrived in the Iraqi capital with his wife and daughter in the morning, is to meet with top officials, including Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, a Shiite, and President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd.


The vice president plans, among other things, to push Iraqi officials to pass petroleum legislation that would help bring international oil companies to Iraq, according to a pool report of comments by a senior administration official who was flying with Cheney.

The official described the petroleum issue as being about Iraqi leaders “figuring out how they really begin to exploit” the country’s resources, according to the pool report.

IHT