Sweden PM: US, EU must admit more Iraq refugees

[NNN0LHI]

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h4Z-SqoWYs8xY9YmyoyiJALhlaiQD90U4QVO1

By MALIN RISING – 4 hours ago

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) — Sweden's prime minister urged the United States and European countries to step up and admit more Iraqi refugees and said Tuesday that his Scandinavian country has shouldered too much of the burden.

In an interview ahead of a U.N. conference on Iraq, Fredrik Reinfeldt noted that while most Iraqi refugees have fled to neighboring countries, Sweden has taken in more than any other Western country.

"Sweden has done very much of the job and less has been done by others, and I think that basically that's wrong," Reinfeldt told The Associated Press at his waterfront office in Stockholm.

Sweden, which opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, has received about 40,000 Iraqis since 2003. The U.S. admitted just more than 1,600 Iraqi refugees in the 2007 fiscal year, but the Bush administration aims to take in 12,000 Iraqi refugees by the end of September.

Reinfeldt, who took office in 2006, said he will discuss the issue with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice when she arrives for the conference this week.

"I understand that for some of the people in Iraq, the United States is the No. 1 aggressor, so not all of them would like to see a future in the U.S.," he said. "But still I think it is (fair) to say they (Washington) should take their responsibility in this circumstance."