A group of Italian researchers and intellectuals called "Article 21" sent a letter to the speakers of both houses of the Italian parliament, demanding that Italy intervene to protect the artifacts.

The letter to Pier Ferdinando Casini and Marcello Pera, repectively speakers of the Chamber of Deputies and Senate, pointed out that Baghdad's national library in particular had been subjected to "ransacking and irreparable damage."

UNESCO, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation, is due to meet at its Paris headquarters on Thursday to decide on how best to protect Iraq's cultural artifacts and buildings which have been damaged by war but also by the breakdown of law and order in its immediate aftermath.

The top civil servant responsible for antiquities at Italy's culture ministry, Giuseppe Proietti, said work had already started on cultural protection before the outbreak of the war.

"We had set up a commission with the Iraqi authorities to restore alabaster bas-reliefs at the Ninive royal palace," said Proietti, who returned from his most recent trip to Iraq in January.

Work was due to have begun on April 2, he said.

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SPACE.WIRE