Director General for Labor Training and Productivity Mudjiman said that the government has submitted official requests to the US and British heads of state and has held informal talks with the two countries' ambassadors to Indonesia on the issue of rebuilding Iraq.

"We are awaiting the two countries' official response to our request, so that we can assess the kinds of skills needed in that country," he was quoted by The Jakarta Post as saying Wednesday.

He said that the two coalition countries would need tens of thousands of workers in the mining and construction sectors to rebuild the country, and that they had informally agreed to cooperate with Indonesia in the reconstruction project.

Director General for Domestic Labor Placement Kirnadi said the government had also allowed 28 manpower placement agencies to resume labor exports to the Middle East following the end of the Iraq war.

"We are still conducting a (tight) selection process of the hundreds of workers who have already undergone the three-month training program at state-owned training centers" and at the agencies, he said, adding that no workers had been recalled during the Iraq war.

Around 500,000 Indonesian nationals are working in the Middle East, with an average 3,000 workers sent to the region per month. The government suspended labor exports to the Middle East during the Iraq war, while it began conducting a more intensive training program for migrant workers at home.

(Xinhua News Agency May 7, 2003)