BAGHDAD - After six years of war and sectarian killings in Iraq, Haider Naeem, a Shiite, wants to make up for lost time and marry his Sunni Arab girlfriend -- but he is finding it an expensive business.

The worst of the violence may be behind them, but young couples eager to get their lives back on track now face a new challenge to starting a family -- the prohibitive costs of marriage in a fledgling market economy.

"I wanted to get married about two years ago, but the security situation was very bad," said Naeem, 26, a tall and jovial man who owns a mobile phone shop in the predominantly Sunni area of Saidiyah in southwest Baghdad.

"And three months ago I went to Yasmine's house with the family so we can prepare for our marriage at the end of this month. But the problem now is I don't have enough money to rent a house."

The worries facing Naeem and his 24-year-old fiancee are all too common among young couples in the Iraqi capital.

Decades of cheap state-subsidised goods during the regime of dictator Saddam Hussein have given way to a market-oriented economy in the wake of the 2003 US-led invasion.

Wobbly economy

The country's new-found capitalism has brought a proliferation of goods, but years of war have also inflicted annual double-digit inflation that has made Iraq impossibly expensive for most young people.

"I can't rent a house or even buy gold as a gift for a girl, so how can I get married?" asked Ahmed Hamid, 35, who is about 10 years past the average male marrying age in Iraq.

"I barely make ends meet for my family, my mother and sister, and I only earn 10,000 dinars (8.50 dollars) a day. With this salary it's impossible to save for marriage," said the central Baghdad car park security guard.

"Some families ask for high dowries or demand rented apartments for their daughters, but they don't think about men's financial situation in these difficult economic times," he said.

The expense of an Iraqi wedding can run into tens of thousands of dollars -- and according to Arab tradition, most of the cost must be borne by the man.

Celebrations are elaborate. Pre-wedding parties are followed by the rental of wedding-day halls with extravagant banquets for hundreds of distant relatives. DJs or a band are also a must for music-loving Iraqis.

Adding to the man's financial burden are traditional dowry gifts such as gold and clothes for the girl, and presents of new furniture and home appliances are not uncommon expectations.

Young couples also prefer to buy a home that they can move into immediately after their nuptials, but rocketing real estate costs have ruled this out for many, forcing some into uncomfortable extended family stays.

"I waited two years until I found a house to rent at 340 dollars a month," said Hussam Amir, 28, a government worker.

"The demands of my fiancee's family are many -- I bought gold that cost about 2,700 dollars, and now I'm working on furnishing the house."

Property prices in Baghdad's suburbs have soared in the past year as security has improved, and estate agents say the trend is set to continue, given a serious shortage of homes.

"The price per square metre in the Zayuneh district has risen from 500 dollars in 2005 to more than 1,000 dollars today," said Abu Abbas, owner of the Zayuneh estate agency in an upmarket area of Baghdad on the east bank of the Tigris river.

Take a raincheck

Other neighbourhoods are experiencing similar booms.

"The square metre price has risen from 400 dollars in 2003 to 900 today," said Abu Mustafa, who runs the Mustafa agency in the Karrada business district.

According to the justice ministry, the number of marriage registrations across Iraq jumped to 243,056 in 2008 from 217,221 the previous year.

The fact that more young people are getting married shows a marked improvement on the darkest days of Iraq's sectarian violence in 2006-07, when mutilated, bullet-ridden corpses lined many Baghdad's streets every morning.

During this period, couples like Naeem and Yasmine had no choice but to postpone marriage.

"My family and I had to leave our house in Saidiyah and move to another neighbourhood as there was a group of gunmen chasing me," said Naeem, his face tightening as he recalled escaping his would-be Sunni killers across rooftops.

"It was difficult for me to visit the girl I love, because she is Sunni and she lives in a Sunni neighbourhood. I can go anywhere now."