TIRANA, Albania-Albania wants to donate its surplus ammunition to Iraq and Afghanistan to help those countries build up their armed forces, Defense Minister Fatmir Mediu said Wednesday.

Mediu said he asked "Washington and other NATO member countries to consider" Albania's offer. The impoverished Balkan country's army has already destroyed some 46,000 of tons of ammunition and is continuing the process as part of a program to scrap excess weaponry by 2010.

"The Albanian government would be ready to give as aid the excess ammunition so that it may be efficiently used in those countries like Iraq and Afghanistan trying to build their armed forces for peace and stability," said Mediu.

An estimated 839 million rounds of ammunition were looted from Albanian army depots in 1997, when citizens enraged over losing their life savings in bogus pyramid investment schemes stormed army barracks.

The government since has collected much of that, though some is still believed to have remained in people's homes.

Albania, a small, predominantly Muslim nation on the Adriatic that hopes to join NATO next year, also has deployed small army units to Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq.