By Steve Schifferes BBC News Online, Washington

Getting Iraq back on its feet will be a major task

US Treasury Secretary John Snow is travelling to Deauville in France for a weekend meeting with his fellow ministers, intended to set the scene for the first summit of world leaders since the Iraq war.

In a highly symbolic gesture, he will hold a bilateral meeting with French finance minister Francis Mer on the nearby beaches of Normandy, where US and British forces landed in World War II to begin the liberation of France.

Mr Snow is eager to win financial support from his fellow finance ministers for the reconstruction of Iraq.

He wants agreement on organising a donor conference where countries would pledge aid contributions, modelled on a similar meeting held shortly after the end of the war in Afghanistan.

But the World Bank has yet to come up with a preliminary assessment of the scale of the reconstruction task - it is proving difficult to produce given the current security situation in Baghdad.

Hidden cash

Mr Snow also wants more co-operation on the recovery of stolen Iraqi assets that were secreted overseas.

Officials say that Lebanon was one major money centre where Saddam Hussein hid his stolen funds.

And they add that the US has found the bulk of the $900m (�555m) believed to have been taken out of the Iraqi central bank on Saddam Hussein's orders on the eve of the war.

"We are getting more and more confirmation that the large bulk of those funds have been identified," said Treasury undersecretary John Taylor.

Much of the money was found in 200 boxes hidden in palaces around Baghdad.

Debt dilemma

Mr Snow seems to be having less luck in persuading fellow finance ministers to forgive Iraq's huge foreign debts which the US believes could cripple the economy for years to come.

The US is now asking for a two-year moratorium on any debt payments, as opposed to earlier suggestions that the debt should be forgiven altogether.

"I believe that no one should expect Iraq to begin to make debt payments for some time," Mr Snow said.

Treasury officials argued that there was now agreement on identifying the size of the debt, and have asked the IMF to help the Paris club discover how much debt is outstanding.

Undersecretary Taylor said there was general agreement that "this is a big issue that needs to be addressed in order to ensure that this reconstruction and recovery is a success".

The sinking dollar

Officials were careful not to comment on the US position regarding the dollar, which has been falling sharply in foreign exchange markets after remarks by Mr Snow that its decline would help US exports.

They were happier to comment on the state of the Iraqi currency, which they are hoping to stabilise in order to facilitate reconstruction.

Officials are also keen to show that the needs of other poorer countries are not being ignored, and a special dinner will take place to discuss the need for more development aid.

Aid groups are still pressing the G8 - five years after world leaders first agreed a plan to reduce the debt of the world's poorest countries - to increase the amount of help provided.

They say only 20% of debt has been forgiven.

Raising money

Speaking for the Jubilee Debt Campaign, Bob Geldof said:

"G8 leaders must end the scandal of third world debt.

"Impoverished, hungry and dying people are still spending millions on debt repayments that can be used for schools, hospitals, and farms, 100% debt relief must be the achievable aim."

The US will be pointing out that it has dramatically increased the amount of money it spends on foreign aid, through the Millennium Challenge Fund and the HIV/Aids initiative.

Meanwhile, the UK Chancellor, Gordon Brown, will be pressing his plan to double aid flows by raising money in private bond markets, the so-called international financing facility.

The G8 nations are the United States, Japan, France, Germany, Britain, Italy and Canada. Russia also takes part on an informal basis.