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Iraq

Colin Challen: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what advice his Department has given to the Iraq Oil Ministry on the introduction of production sharing agreements. [41884]

Dr. Howells: The contractual arrangements for future oil exploration and production are a decision for the incoming Iraqi Government and the Government have not sought to influence this decision. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office did support a 2003 independent study which set out the full range of possible contractual financing arrangements to allow the rehabilitation and development of the Iraqi oil industry.

Under the outgoing Iraqi Transitional Government, the Ministry of Oil was clear that the option of concluding Production Sharing Agreements would be one of a range of contracts that might be needed to help redevelop the oil industry. This is because after decades of isolation, Iraq has weak technical and managerial capacity combined with an ageing infrastructure with severely outdated production facilities. Furthermore, there has been no explorations for new fields since the 1980s and limited post-2003 investment and poor maintenance. Given the state of the infrastructure, and the US$20 billion needed for reconstruction of the oil industry, it is highly unlikely that the Iraqi Government will be able to fund investment in the oil industry itself. Without the needed investment the oil industry will not be able to fuel the required sustainable economic growth in Iraq.
 
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The Government reiterates, however, that the decision as to whether to conclude a Production Sharing Agreement will be for the Iraqi Government to decide.

Israel

Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when his Department last met Israeli officials to discuss the security wall; and if he will make a statement. [41476]

Dr. Howells: The British ambassador in Tel Aviv last raised our concerns on the route of the barrier with the Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 19 December.

We fully recognise Israel's right to self-defence. A barrier is a reasonable way to achieve this. But the barrier's route should be on or behind the Green Line, and not on occupied territory. Construction of the barrier on Palestinian land is illegal. The route is particularly damaging around Jerusalem, as it risks cutting the city off from the west bank and dividing the west bank in two.

We will continue to raise our concerns over the barrier with the Israeli Government at all levels.

Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment he has made of the likelihood of a pre-emptive strike by Israel on Iran's nuclear facilities. [41898]

Dr. Howells: My right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary said in the House on 10 January that he had

made it clear that military action is not on our agenda, and I do not believe that in practice it is on anybody else's agenda."

Kashmir

Mr. Pope: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make representations to the Governments of India and Pakistan on including representatives of the people of Kashmir in the next round of peace talks. [41305]

Dr. Howells: The UK supports the on-going Composite Dialogue process between the two countries. This aims to resolve all of their outstanding differences, including over Kashmir. For any such settlement to be durable, we believe that the views of the Kashmiris must be taken into account, and we continue to raise this with our Pakistani and Indian interlocutors. We therefore welcome the steps taken so far by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to initiate a dialogue with Kashmiri separatists, and are aware of reports that a second round of talks may begin early this year.

Moldova

Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what plans he has to visit Moldova. [41544]

Mr. Douglas Alexander: My right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary has no plans to visit Moldova.

Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe

Mr. MacShane: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how much funding
 
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was contributed by his Department to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe in each year since 2001. [41949]

Dr. Howells: The United Kingdom's total contributions to the activities of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe were £17.3 million in 2001–02, £20.4 million in 2002–03, £24.8 million in 2003–04 and £24.8 million in 2004–05.

Pakistan

Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what representations he has made to the Government of Pakistan on the growth in the number of cases being brought before the courts for the charge of blasphemy. [41527]

Dr. Howells: We make regular representations to the Government of Pakistan regarding the Blasphemy Laws. In December 2005 the UK and EU Partners de"marche raised its concerns with the Government of Pakistan about the 19 cases of Blasphemy registered in 2005. With our European Union partners we encourage the Government of Pakistan to repeal or modify the Blasphemy Laws to remove the possibility of the Laws being misused.

Palestinian Authority

Mr. Fabian Hamilton: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether Government funding for the Palestinian Authority is made (a) through the World Bank Trust Fund and (b) directly to the Palestinian Authority. [41933]

Hilary Benn: I have been asked to reply.

DFID provides support to the Palestinian Authority (PA) budget through the Reform Trust Fund managed by the World Bank. Since the fund's inception in January 2004 total DFID funding has amounted to £12 million. Funding is conditional on the achievement of benchmarks for reform, progress against which is carefully monitored. Through this process the Reform Trust Fund has helped the PA to improve its financial control and management.

DFID also provides financial aid and technical assistance to the PA in the areas of public administration and reform, budgeting and planning, security sector reform, statistics, and the water sector.

Public Diplomacy Review

Ms Gisela Stuart: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when he expects to respond to Lord Carter of Coles's Public Diplomacy Review. [41237]

Mr. Straw: In my written ministerial statement to the House on 15 December 2005, I welcomed the recommendations made in the noble Lord Carter of Coles's Review. I wrote to the noble Lord on 14 December 2005 making this clear. Public Diplomacy is a vital part of our work in promoting UK interests overseas. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office is committed to working closely with Public Diplomacy partners to achieve maximum impact from our public diplomacy activity. Work has already begun on
 
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implementation of the recommendations. I intend to keep the Foreign Affairs Committee informed of progress.

Sharm El Sheikh Bomb Attacks

Mr. Hague: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (1) whether assistance given by his Department to the families of the victims of the Sharm El Sheikh bomb attacks in July was in line with his Department's usual practice; [40122]

(2) what assistance was given by his Department to the families of the victims of the Sharm El Sheikh bomb attacks in July. [40123]

Mr. Straw: The assistance given to the families of the victims of the Sharm El Sheikh bomb attacks incorporated the experience and lessons learnt from previous incidents.

The British ambassador in Cairo led a team to the scene arriving eight hours after the bombings; a rapid deployment team from London (including trained Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) volunteers, the police, Red Cross and medical personnel) arrived within 24 hours. Further police staff for disaster victim identification deployed to Sharm El Sheikh the following day. A call handling centre was set up in the FCO within one hour of our hearing of the incident, with calls being transferred later in the day to the West Midlands police who acted on our behalf in the UK throughout the crisis on call handling, and on family liaison issues.

On the ground, we set up an office and provided support to survivors and visiting families, helped to arrange medical evacuations and, liaising with the tour companies, arranged for survivors to be flown home. We also helped to locate and repatriate those who died in this tragedy. Throughout, we worked closely with the Egyptian authorities.

The FCO also has in place a package of immediate assistance measures to help victims of terrorism overseas and their families in the immediate aftermath of an incident such as this. These measures were made available to the families affected.

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