Stockholm  - Host country Sweden expects the Iraqi government to report "small steps" at summit this week that Baghdad is to co- chair with the United Nations, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said Tuesday.

A year ago the International Compact for Iraq (ICI) was launched at a summit in Egypt, and the meeting Thursday near Stockholm is a follow-up to that effort.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al- Maliki along with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice were due to attend, barring last minute scheduling changes.

Speaking to broadcaster TV4, Reinfeldt said issues to be assessed ranged from matters "close to people" like sanitation, access to water and electricity and respect for human rights, to "fundamental tough issues like access to oil riches."

The one-day meeting would be the first follow-up conference during the five-year ICI process, Reinfeldt said underlining the need to strengthen national reconciliation in Iraq.

The Swedish premier was slated Friday to hold bilateral meetings with al-Maliki and other Iraqi officials.

Sweden did not contribute forces to Iraq during or after the US military campaign that in 2003 swept Saddam Hussein from power. But it has other ties with Iraq - for instance receiving some 140,000 Iraqis over the years.

Sweden is also due to "step up its presence in Iraq" by opening an embassy in Baghdad, Reinfeldt said.

Iraqi ambassador to Sweden, Ahmad A Bamarni, said that "more than 90 delegations" were expected to attend which signalled the importance Iraq had for the international community.

Iraq was slated to ask for assistance, both economic and technology, "to help us build a democratic society," Barmani told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

"From our side our commitment is to do our best to fight corruption, advance reconciliation and distribution of national resources," he said.

During the past year some progress had been achieved he said, noting that "violence and terrorist acts had reduced 65 to 70 per cent."

He attributed this to "our forces are now capable to fight the terrorist organizations" and that the population was "cooperating with the Iraqi forces" as well as the insight among various groups that violence was no solution to Iraq's problems. (dpa)