(updates with quotes, background) By Ingrid Melander LUXEMBOURG, April 20 (Reuters) - The European Commission will spend up to 18 million euros ($24.46 million) helping refugees fleeing violence in Iraq and might add an additional 10 million euros if needed, it said on Friday. The wealthy 27-nation EU will focus on helping refugees in the region rather than on taking them in the bloc, German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said after interior ministers discussed the issue in Luxembourg. Up to half of the estimated 4 million Iraqi refugees are being sheltered by neighbours Syria and Jordan, which say they are struggling to shoulder the burden, while nearly 2 million are displaced across Iraq. "It is essential to step up our support to Iraq's neighbouring countries which face a humanitarian crisis of exceptional proportions," EU Migration Commissioner Franco Frattini said in a letter. Frattini said the bloc's executive was allocating 11 million euros for humanitarian aid in the region, while EU states would receive up to 7 million euros to help them take in refugees. Another 10 million euros of humanitarian aid could be added later, other EU officials said. While rights group say the bloc should help Jordan and Syria by taking more refugees in, Schaeuble made clear that was not a priority. "The amount of money we could spend here ... is best spent there (in the region), where it could help 10 times more refugees," he told a news conference. Sweden took in by far by the most Iraqi refugees of any EU member, the European Commission said, with nearly 5,000 Iraqi refugees since the beginning of the year, compared to about 9,000 last year. Spain has so far received a little more than 700 asylum seekers, Germany more than 400, and others up to 100, it said. A U.N. conference agreed on Wednesday to step up help for Iraqi refugees. Specific assistance, both to host countries and refugees themselves, would be worked out over the coming months, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said. More than 3,000 U.S. forces and tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians have been killed since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
