Iraqi government launches YouTube channel

(2009 YouTube, LLC)

The Iraqi government launched an official YouTube channel on Wednesday, joining the White House, Britain's Royal Family, the Pope and others on the Google-owned video-sharing site.

The YouTube channel was unveiled at the end of a visit to Baghdad by Google chief executive Eric Schmidt, who also announced plans by the Internet giant to begin digitizing artifacts and documents from Iraq's National Museum.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki inaugurated the new channel, located at youtube.com/iraqigov, with a message saying it would allow his government to showcase its achievements to the world.

"The world has not seen what the Iraqi government has been able to achieve in regard to security, economy, politics and building a federal democratic system," Maliki said.

"The government sees in this video technology an opportunity to show our achievements."

In a YouTube video, Schmidt said the channel will allow viewers to "discover even more what's great about Iraq, this new country that's being built, the resurgence of a new society and the amazing things they have in store."