BAGHDAD: A financial squeeze is forcing Iraq to put major weapons deals on hold, but the country will hire some 10,000 additional paramilitary forces seen as critical in the fight against ISIS, its finance minister said Wednesday.

Baghdad will focus its military spending in 2016 on light and medium weapons such as sniper rifles, as well as anti-mining devices and surveillance equipment as an alternative to heavier weapons like artillery.

“There has been a shift in emphasis by the government to improve the quality of the weapons that are needed for this type of war,” Hoshiyar Zebari in an interview for the Reuters Middle East Investment Summit.

Although major oil exporter Iraq has less cash because of lower global oil prices, the shift to smaller, more agile weapons may actually boost counter-insurgency efforts, he said.

The Popular Mobilization Forces, which include volunteers, Sunni tribal fighters and powerful Iranian-backed Shiite groups, are seen as a bulwark against ISIS militants who seized nearly a third of the country last year.

Tens of thousands of those fighters are deployed around the country alongside the Iraqi military, which nearly collapsed twice in the past year in the face of ISIS advances.

The finance minister said that about 20 percent of Iraq’s 2016 budget would go to the country’s defenses, including the PMF.

But spending on the paramilitary forces would be less than the $1 billion allocated for this year, in line with broader budget cuts.

“I think we gave them ... about 10,000 new recruits which they have requested, but they have their budget within the security forces,” he said of next year’s national budget. “We will pay their salaries, we pay for their equipment, we pay for their basic war needs.”

Iraq’s national budget proposal for 2016 envisages expenditure of about $95 billion with a nearly $21 billion deficit. That compares with original projections for this year of roughly $105 billion of spending and a $22 billion deficit.

Oil accounts for over 80 percent of Iraq’s fiscal revenues, but crude prices have more than halved since mid-2014.