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Incredible as it may seem, in the past two years, Iraq's economic situation has worsened, living standards have declined, and poverty as well as child malnutrition have increased. According to a number of non-governmental organisations in Iraq, the unemployment rate could be as high as 65 percent.

The State Department has ordered a major reevaluation of the troubled $18.4-billion Iraq reconstruction effort. The adjustment, the third such funding change in nine months, is the latest sign of disarray in the effort to help quell the insurgency by improving living standards and providing jobs for Iraqis.

An attorney for the family of a Alabama contractor who disappeared in Iraq during an attack on a convoy a year ago has filed suit in Texas against Halliburton Co., accusing the firm of concealing the dangers of the job from the missing man.

The lawsuit charges that Halliburton, Tim Bell's employer, concealed the dangers of working in Iraq, failed to protect him once there, and maliciously sent him and other convoy drivers into a known combat zone on April 9, 2004.

There are now 224 Fijian troops serving in Iraq, and an estimated 1,000 more are serving with private security firms holding contracts for the United States government in both Iraq and Kuwait.

The head of the country's corruption-busting body, the Commission on Public Integrity, says he is determined to clean up widespread back-handers, bribery and embezzlement that are undermining Iraq's chances of a better future.

Reports said that many security guards recruited from Fiji by Timoci Lolohea's Meridian Services Agency were still unemployed, two months after arriving in oil rich kingdom that borders war-torn Iraq.

North Carolina-based security contractor Blackwater USA refuses to share the results of the company's probe into the killings of four employees in Iraq a year ago, the mothers of two slain employees tell ABC News.

According to a recent United Nations report, South Africa is among the top three suppliers of personnel for private military companies operating in Iraq next to the US and the UK. At least 10 South African based companies have been sending people to Iraq. Most of those recruited operate as drivers and bodyguards, protecting supply routes and valuable resources.

Halliburton Co. and the U.S. Army have resolved a lengthy billing dispute over meals served to U.S. troops in Iraq and Kuwait, with the Pentagon ultimately refusing to reimburse $55 million worth of bills. At stake was $200 million in disputed costs incurred during the first nine months of the war and occupation, first in Kuwait and then in Iraq.

Halliburton will receive about 95% of what it billed, despite numerous concerns by Pentagon auditors that the company couldn't provide adequate documentation to justify its expenses. The favorable settlement is an indication the military brass is willing to treat Halliburton leniently since a large portion of the disputed services were performed in a theater of war.

The U.S. Army will pay $1.8 billion to a Halliburton subsidiary for dining services in Iraq and Kuwait but retain $55 million out of about $200 million in payments suspended during a long-running billing dispute.

Halliburton has struck a deal with the U.S. Army on food service provided to U.S. troops in Iraq, resolving a 14-month long billing dispute.

The head of a five-member Kuwaiti investigative committee said the U.S. military and Halliburton have failed to fully cooperate in the investigation of a contract for fuel deliveries to Iraq. "We sent them a letter to clarify some points, but we have not received an answer for three months," he said.

"The ministries with big cash, the Water Ministry, Electricity Ministry, Housing Ministry, Oil and Gas Ministry, Education Ministry, they are the guys with big money," project manager for Rebuild Iraq 2005 Fadi Kaddoura said.

Companies with billions of dollars of U.S.-funded projects are seeking to recruit new Iraqi sub-contractors and international companies are encouraged by signs of declining violence in Iraq, but red tape and graft could offset the improved security situation, executives taking part in a huge reconstruction expo said on Monday.

Hundreds of firms have headed for Jordan for the latest in a string of conferences intended to drum up business for Iraq's reconstruction.