By IPS Correspondents
PARIS, May 1 2003 (IPS)

UNESCO’s first mission may leave for Iraq in the near future û – in the first week of May", said the secretary general of this international organization, Koitiro Matsuura. According to him, the United Nations would like to see the creation of the UNESCO mission in Baghdad as soon as possible.

– We are holding talks on this issue with the US defense secretary at the highest level," Matsuura said. Speaking at a press conference at the United Nations on Thursday, he also expressed the hope that they would manage to save many cultural values stolen by burglars from museums and other cultural institutions during the war in Iraq.

After the first war in the Gulf, Iraq’s authorities informed about the stealing of 4,000 articles of art. ôWe managed to return one percent of them, or about 40 masterpieces. Perhaps now we will be able to act better," the UNESCO secretary general said with hope.

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