BERNE, April 19 (Reuters) - The United Nations and Iraq's government will next month launch a plan to rally international support for the country's authorities and lay out its rebuilding needs, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said on Thursday. Addressing reporters after a meeting with Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey, Ban said he would launch the International Compact with Iraq with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on May 3, in Egypt's Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh. A ministerial conference including officials from across the Middle East and other major countries would immediately follow that meeting, the U.N. chief said. "I hope these two international events will also play an important (role) to help the Iraqi government restore peace and security," said the South Korean, who took over as the world's top diplomat at the start of 2007. The Iraq compact (www.iraqcompact.org) is meant to bolster international support for governing forces in Baghdad and lay out the country's reconstruction requirements in areas such as health, social and infrastructure. Ban said restoring a large-scale U.N. field presence in Iraq would depend on security conditions. "I think that everybody, including myself, in the world, should be very much concerned and troubled by this ongoing violence and instability in Iraq," Ban said. "The United Nations has been largely constrained and confined by the situation on the ground."
