MADRID, Oct. 24 — A DaimlerChrysler vice president described himself as "eager" to do business there. And the leader of a Spanish construction consortium dismissed concerns for safety with a shrug.

"Sure there's lack of security, but it's no worse than working in some Latin American countries or Africa," Pedro González-Haba, foreign affairs director of the Spanish Builders' Association, said.

To hear their enthusiasm, one might not guess that they were talking about risking money in Iraq. But the two executives were among the roughly 200 representatives of oil, gas, financial and other companies from 47 countries — including 17 American corporations like Coca-Cola, Dow Chemical, General Electric and ChevronTexaco — that traveled to Madrid to explore investment opportunities in Iraq.

The closed meeting was billed as a sideline to coincide with the international donors' conference to raise money for the reconstruction of Iraq. But the delegates focused on private-sector investment at the conference's conclusion Friday.

Mark Malloch Brown, administrator of the United Nations Development Program, said the Iraqi economy could transform itself as quickly as those in Eastern Europe did, with abundant "latent talent" that would begin to flourish by 2005, with the help of investment, privatization and loans. He also said that he expected that within a year oil revenues would pay for the cost of government and food imports.

The American administrator of Iraq, L. Paul Bremer III, meanwhile, stressed reforms already in place to attract cash to Iraq, like laws that "permit foreign firms to establish wholly owned companies or to purchase 100 percent of Iraqi firms" other than those dedicated to natural resources. Foreign businesses, he added, "will receive national treatment and may remit profits and capital freely."

Yoriko Kawaguchi, Japan's foreign minister, called for the restructuring of Iraq's $120 billion debt by 2004, which she said would build investor confidence.

Treasury Secretary John W. Snow of the United States concluded, "Ultimately it is the private capital moving energy to the private sector that will create prosperity." He congratulated the more than 340 private-sector entities that sent people to the conference, including 16 British, 13 Australian, 9 Japanese and 8 Chinese corporations.

Twenty-one companies from countries that opposed the war — Germany, France and Russia — also attended including Deutsche Bank, Total and Lukoil.

"We hope and trust that we will not be punished for our position on the war in the awarding of contracts," Russia's deputy foreign minister, Yuri Fedotov, said in a phone interview. Oil companies and other corporations from Russia are prepared to invest $4 billion "if there is fair competition, and clear rules for companies," he added.

The Danish government, a supporter of the war effort, was more concerned about financial losses. To encourage investment, it passed a $158 million loan program, which would act as insurance to minimize risk, the Danish secretary of state for foreign affairs, Friis Petersen, said.

Fifteen Iraqi ministers and members of the interim governing council tried to court the foreign investors in a daylong meeting, focusing on agriculture, retail, infrastructure, energy and financial services.

Some business leaders received the Iraqi overtures coolly.

"You can't have investment until there's a solution to the debt problem and a legitimate government in place," said Jean-Louis Salas, managing director of energy, exports and projects in Iraq for BNP Paribas, the French investment bank. Paribas has not yet decided whether to try for fast-track entry as one of five financial institutions in Iraq.

But others were optimistic, despite the continuing violence. Timothy McBride, vice president for corporate strategy at DaimlerChrysler, said that the company had "plans to re-establish there" despite the hostile environment.

"We want to be a partner in difficult times," he said. "We're in Afghanistan, and it's not clear what the payoff will be. I came here to sort out the ways to get contracts. We're eager to have a chance to compete."

The private-sector side meeting to the donors conference, organized by the Institute of Foreign Commerce of Spain, was not meant to be a "contracts fair," said Fernando Diez Moreno, the Spanish secretary of state for defense. Country donations, he added, will not be linked to the awarding of contracts.

Nonetheless, that was on the minds of some participants, who grumbled that American companies had already gobbled up billions of dollars in contracts.

"The United States has the biggest slice, but we're confident there's enough of the pie to go around for everyone," Manuel Valencia, vice president at Técnicas Reunidas, said. His is one of 13 Spanish companies that met with the Iraqi officials, including Cespa, the Spanish oil company, and the BSCH bank.

To give companies a chance against American multinationals, the Spanish government Web site on the donors' conference contains contact information for United States businesses, like Bechtel and Skylink Air, that are expected to subcontract work.

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