Iraq turns clock back for solar eclipse

8220;I remember we used to do that when I was a child,8221; said 36-year-old businessman Hashem Abood.

Another technique recommended in Iraqi newspapers to protect the retina from the sun8217;s potentially blinding infra-red radiation is to watch the August 11 eclipse reflected in water.

Sales of tubs and buckets have reportedly surged.

8220;My children are undisciplined and, short of locking them up inside, it would be hard for me to stop them looking at the eclipse. So we may as well all take a look together but in the water,8221; said handyman Ahmad Falah.

The University of Mosul in northern Iraq, meanwhile, has promised toproduce and distribute as many makeshift pairs of glasses as it can out of sheets used for welding masks.

Iraq boasts it will have the planet8217;s quot;best viewquot; of the eclipse from the Mosul region but ophthalmologists have been urging the 22-million population not to look directly at the sun.

The total eclipse will last two minutes from 3:47 P.M. 1147 GMT in Mosul, turning day into night, according to Iraq8217;s media. The whole event as the moon passes between the sun and earth is expected to last two-and-a-half hours.

Protective glasses are not on sale in Iraq, which has been under an international embargo ever since its August 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Even if they were, few people would be able to afford them at a price of one dollar.

Iraq, where the average monthly salary of a government employee is only five dollars, is organising a conference on the eclipse from August 9 to 11 at Mosul University.

An observation camp is being set up by the university for scientists and enthusiasts, while specialreligious services are to be held in the town on the day. Mosul last witnessed a total eclipse in 1914, the official news agency INA said.

In neighbouring Jordan, eye specialists in public hospitals will be on duty on August 11 which the cabinet has decided will be a public holiday. People have been advised to watch the event on TV.