No decision has been made on how much would be needed for the rebuilding process in Iraq, and the United Nations is still assessing the need to be raised in the donors conference in Madrid this month, a UN spokesman said Wednesday.

Spokesman Fred Eckhard told Xinhua that the leaked figure of US$35 billion coming out of a source in Japan is "misleading."

"We do make need assessment together with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, no decision has yet been made," he said, adding that the leaked figure is "a simple adding" of what has been asked for by the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), which failed to take into consideration the "absorptive capacity," or how much could the Iraqis spent in the first year.

A donor's conference will be held in Madrid on Oct. 23-24. Media reports said earlier that a target of US$35 billion will be set at that conference.

(Xinhua News Agency October 2, 2003)