US to Welcome 7,000 Iraqi Refugees

The Bush administration is to increase the official quota of Iraqi refugees who will be allowed to settle in the United States from 500 to 7,000 over the next year, in a response to the growing refugee crisis in Iraq.

The move follows repeated criticism of the US by humanitarian groups for failing to help more than 3 million Iraqis displaced from their homes since the conflict began.

So far the United States has allowed only 463 Iraq refugees into the country since the war began nearly four years ago.

Under the expanded refugee programme, to be announced later today, the administration also plans to pledge $18m (£9.2m) for a worldwide resettlement and relief programme.

The United Nations has asked for $60m (£30.6m) from nations around the world. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice today met with UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres to outline the expanded US programme.

The 7,000 would be resettled from nations outside Iraq where they have fled. The US proposal also includes plans to offer special treatment for Iraqis still in their country whose cooperation with the US government puts them at risk from sectarian reprisal.

Aid organisations report a growing emergency inside Iraq and in neighbouring countries as thousands flee sectarian violence every day. The United Nations estimates there are more than 1.5 million Iraqis displaced within the country and a similar number living as refugees in Jordan, Syria and elsewhere. In December, Washington-based Refugees International warned that acceleration in the numbers fleeing Iraq meant it could soon overtake Darfur as the source of the world's worst refugee crisis.