To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the total amount of debt owed to the UK by other countries was in the last year for which figures are available, broken down by country. [134726]

Most of the debt owed by sovereign Governments to the UK Government arises from defaults on export contracts guaranteed by the Export Credit Guarantee Department (ECGD). Such debts usually become the subject of Bilateral Debt Agreements entered into under the auspices of the Paris Club of official creditors. Table 1 shows the debt owed to the UK Government as at 30 September 2003 under Paris Club Arrangements.In addition to debt rescheduled in the Paris Club, ECGD holds unrecovered claims on a number of countries, by far the largest of which is Iraq, where ECGD has unrecovered claims of approximately £620 million.The UK Government has already announced its commitment to providing 100 per cent. irrevocable debt relief for all countries eligible for the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC) upon their reaching Completion Point. In addition, for eligible HIPC countries yet to reach Decision Point, the UK does not ask for, or expect to receive, payments. Any debt payments that are made are held in trust until they can be returned to fund poverty reduction.The debts of Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda were all cancelled when they reached the HIPC Completion Point.The Department for International Development (DfID) no longer provides aid loans to low income countries. However, Table 2 shows the outstanding debt owed to DFID as of 31 March 2003 from loans made in previous years. In 1978, the Government cancelled nearly all of its aid debts to low-income countries, which were worth £1.2 billion. In September 1997, the Government launched the Commonwealth Debt Initiative (CDI). Under the CDI, the Government announced that it was willing to cancel the remaining aid debts, worth £132 million, of those poorer (lower-middle income) Commonwealth countries who were committed to the Millennium Development Goals, who were following sound economic policies, who promoted accountable and transparent governance and who were bearing down on corruption. To date, 12 countries have benefited from this initiative.