Iraq signs $5b order with Bombardier and Boeing

Baghdad: Iraq said on Tuesday it had agreed to buy 40 new aircraft from US plane maker Boeing and six from Canada's Bombardier for state-run Iraqi Airways in a deal worth up to $5 billion.

"A ministerial committee was formed and has agreed to buy 40 planes from Boeing, and four other used ones from Boeing and six new planes from Bombardier," Bangeen Riqani, deputy minister of transport, said.

An earlier government statement had said Iraq would buy the 40 Boeing jets and had agreed an option for 10 more. The Boeing jets are due for delivery in 2015, and the Canadian aircraft are due this year and in 2009, Riqani said.

No details on the type of aircraft were immediately available.

Iraq's national carrier grounded its planes in the early 1990s due to UN sanctions, and much of the carrier's fleet and assets were destroyed during the 2003 US-led war and in subsequent looting.

The airline resumed international flights in 2004.