The Tourism & Antiquities Ministry says it has begun talks with foreign hotel groups about investing in the Al-Rasheed, next to the Iraqi parliament; the Babylon, on the banks of the Tigris river; the Sheraton; the Palestine Meridien; the Al-Mansour and the Al-Sadeer.

"These were once fine hotels, but they have not been properly refurbished since the 1970s," says Bahaa Mayah, a ministerial adviser. "Each of the six hotels will need about $30m in investment to bring it up to standard.

"We are in discussions with some of the biggest international hotel groups, such as Marriot, Intercontinental and Hilton, looking for capital investment and new management. It is early days, but there has been a lot of interest."

The Iraqi government has a controlling 51 per cent stake in each of the six hotels and there are no plans to alter this structure if new investment is found.

Baghdad has identified tourism as a key element of the country's reconstruction effort, attracting new business to the country and providing jobs for Iraqis.

The government wants to build new hotels in the holy cities of Karbala and Najaf, which will be served by a new $250m airport.

Mayah says the ministry is focusing on building upper-end hotel accommodation to create the maximum number of jobs and the largest amount of revenue from visitors.

"We have the demand but we lack the infrastructure," says Mayah. "Maybe we have 200,000 hotel rooms, but most are not up to international standards.

"Across Iraq we need more three, four and five-star hotels to increase the amount that people spend when they visit.

"We have some of the holiest sites in Islam outside Saudi Arabia and millions of Iraqis abroad in Europe and the US. If we rebuild our tourism infrastructure to a high standard, it creates jobs in a wide range of sectors."

The tourism and interior ministries are also planning to make visa applications easier.