BEIJING, Nov. 26 — The Iraqi government Wednesday launched an official channel on the popular video-sharing website YouTube.

The channel on the Google-owned site was opened when Google chief executive Eric Schmidt was paying a visit to Baghdad.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki unveiled the new channel, saying the YouTube channel 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 new channel will allow visitors 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.”

Schmidt also made a presentation on Wednesday inside Iraq’s National Museum, announcing that Google would create a virtual copy of the museum’s collections at its own expense, and make images of four millenniums of archaeological treasures available and free online by early next year.

Internet users can log on to youtube.com/iraqigov to visit the channel. 

On Xinhua Web site: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-11/26/content_12541024.htm