Iraq power generation at 2003 levels

Iraq is now producing as much power as it did on the eve of the US-led invasion of 2003 but is still meeting barely 50 percent of peak demand, a senior electricity ministry official said.

"2008 is the first year when production has reached the level prior to that of Saddam Hussein's fall," the ministry's operations and control chief Adel Mahdi told AFP in an interview. "But we still need much more."