BAGHDAD -- Iraq needs at least five billion dollars in pledges from international donors gathering at an aid conference in October to meet next year's budget shortfall and rehabilitate shattered infrastructure, a senior United Nations official said.

Rebuilding requirements for 2004 are estimated at "somewhere in the order of $20 billion," Ramiro Lopez da Silva, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Iraq, said in a statement heard.

The war-ravaged country could expect to earn a maximum of just 15 billion dollars next year, primarily from oil sales, leaving a substantial gap da Silva hoped would be filled through international aid, AFP reported.

"How realistic is it to expect a new flow of five billion is something we need to see in October," when a donors' conference is scheduled, he said.

Even if the figure is met, da Silva is concerned the funds would only be able to fix "patches here and there", whereas a complete overhaul of Iraq's limping sectors such as energy and agriculture would top 50 billion dollars.

"If you want to have a quantum leap in the whole economy of Iraq, you will have to be much more ambitious in what is required in the national budget," da Silva said.

"Fifty billion dollars doesn't change a lot in Iraq." Debt forgiveness and the repatriation of frozen assets could also ease the strain on the country, which is emerging from a dozen years of sanctions and an economy badly mismanaged by Saddam Hussein.