Baghdad battle to serve Big Mac

MCDONALD'S, a symbol of American cultural expansion and home to the best-known hamburger in the world, is under siege from entrepreneurs battling it out to serve the first Big Mac in Iraq.

The US fast food giant's head office in Chicago has been inundated with enquiries about opportunities in the oil-rich state since the end of the conflict, including dissidents keen to make their name back home.

A company insider said: 'They have gone to other countries, become successful and want to go to Iraq and open a McDonald's.'

The level of interest is not surprising given the lucrative nature of such a franchise and the rush to make money out of the chaotic reconstruction.

A host of foreign firms are sending representatives to strike import and export deals with local companies in the hope the contracts will prove watertight once an Iraq authority emerges, and security improves.

There is already mounting speculation that one of Iraq's wealthiest merchant clans, the al-Bunnia family, is in pole position for a McDonald's franchise.

The family held licences with Nestle, Danone and United Biscuits before UN sanctions were introduced in the 1990s and has recently worked as a sub-contractor for US constructor Bechtel.

A McDonald's spokesman said the group was storing information from interested parties and had an Iraq page on its website to guide would-be applicants.

'We receive countless unsolicited requests on franchising from all over the world. To organise that we've established a file in which to keep the information.' But he said McDonald's had no immediate plans to develop anything and had not been in talks with the al-Bunnias.

McDonald's expansion in recent years means that it now serves burgers in a host of Middle Eastern countries. It has 34 restaurants in neighbouring Kuwait and introduced the 'McArabia' - two grilled chicken patties wrapped in flat bread - into Egypt last week in a bid to beat a boycott of US products by Arabs angered by the Iraq conflict.

Iraq's capital, Baghdad, boasts eateries such as Pizza Hot that imitate US originals but are independent. One burger joint, Ali al-Lami's, was allegedly a favourite of Saddam Hussein's.

March of the Golden Arches

IN less than 50 years since it first opened, McDonald's has expanded across 119 countries and runs more than 30,000 restaurants. The group opened its first fast-food outlet in the UK in 1974 and the British business now serves 2.5m people every day.

Its most controversial opening has also proved to be its most successful. On 31 January, 1990, and after 14 years of negotiations, McDonald's unveiled its famous Golden Arches in Pushkin Square, Moscow, and promptly broke its global opening day record for customers served. It has sold 66m Big Macs in Russia since the end of the Cold War and caters for 200,000 customers a day.