'I have prepared a report for [CPA administrator Paul] Bremer with some initial ideas about how that money might be used,' he said. 'I can assure you that it is under constant discussion.' Crandall was speaking during the Iraq Procurement conference held in London on 27-29 April. He said that contracts worth just over $5,000 million had been awarded under the PMO scheme (see table). A total of 2,300 projects across five sectors had now been identified.

'We would be well served to keep some of the money in reserve, in part to finance the new government,' he told the conference. 'Agriculture is one area where investment is required.'

It is understood decisions about spending the $4,000 million are being deferred until after John Negroponte, US ambassador to the UN who has been named US ambassador to Iraq, takes up his post in Baghdad and the PMO is transferred to the office of the US ambassador at the end of June.

Contractors with major PMO projects have told MEED that it is taking much longer than expected to mobilise in Iraq due to security concerns. 'We signed our contract with the PMO on 11 March and were supposed to be 100 per cent mobilised within 70 days under financial penalty,' one contractor said. 'We had a recent meeting with the PMO in which they asked us to get at least one person into the country.'