UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on 23 October opened the Iraq donors' conference in Madrid with an appeal to those attending to give as much as possible during the two-day event. 'We all look forward to the earliest possible establishment of a sovereign Iraqi government but a start on reconstruction cannot be deferred until that day,' Annan said in his opening speech. Senior coalition and Iraqi politicians have urged countries to give generously, even if they did not agree with the US-led invasion. 'There have been last-minute attempts to ramp up the money, and all the pressure has been on the EU,' said a senior Iraqi official.