Hyundai Engineering & Construction, is to receive $29.4 million from Iraq in reparations for damage suffered during the 1991 Gulf War, the company said recently.

Iraq is responsible for paying a total of $34.4 million to Hyundai in war reparations.

The company, which has battled liquidity problems for months, had received $5 million from Iraq as of last September, but said it would soon be getting the remainder of what it was owed in reparations.

"The [South Korean] Foreign Ministry notified us that it had received the payment and it would send us the money on Monday," the company said in a statement.

Hyundai said it hoped the payment of the reparations would improve the chances of it getting $850 million in unpaid construction bills from Iraq.

"We will be able to sell the commercial papers we received from Iraq, if the United Nations lifts economic sanctions against Iraq," said company spokesman Park Jong-kil.

The company offered a series of fund-raising plans last year to stave off bankruptcy. It said it plans to slash its total debt by 22% to 3.48 trillion won by the end of this year through fund-raising and asset sales.

Hyundai also said it expects to get $40 million in uncollected payments from Saudi Arabia in February or March, following the $50 million it received last year, the statement said.

The Sultan of Brunei also agreed in November after meeting South Korean President Kim Dae-jung to expedite the payment of $38 million the country owes Hyundai for construction work.

Shares in Hyundai Engineering had jumped by the daily limit of 15% to 2,690 won by 0508 GMT on the day’s biggest volume of 36.7 million shares.