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AMMAN, Jordan (AP) - Iraq's new president has asked Jordan's king to help resolve a fraud conviction that has long hung over Ahmad Chalabi, the one-time Pentagon favourite who is now a deputy prime minister in Iraq. President Jalal Talabani said in newspaper remarks published Monday that he asked King Abdullah to resolve Jordan's differences with Chalabi at a weekend meeting. Chalabi was convicted in absentia in 1992 by a Jordanian military court of embezzlement, fraud and breach of trust after a bank he ran collapsed with about $300 million US in missing deposits. Chalabi, who denies wrongdoing, was sentenced to 22 years in prison in Jordan but has served no time. Talabani, who visited Jordan over the weekend in his first trip abroad, said Chalabi's case figured prominently in talks with King Abdullah. "I asked His Majesty the king for a political solution and, I believe, Chalabi wants the issue resolved in a satisfactory manner for both sides," Talabani told Jordan's mass circulation Al-Rai, a pro-government daily.
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