Google is putting thousands of ancient artifacts from Iraq's National Museum online in an effort to convince foreign firms to invest in the Middle Eastern country, the Web giant announced yesterday.

Google employees have taken more than 14,000 photographs of antiquities in the museum, which has been largely closed since the U.S. invasion in 2003 for security reasons and for renovation. They aim to put them online in early 2010.

"I can think of no better use of our time and our resources to make the images and ideas from your civilization, from the very beginning of time, available to a billion people worldwide," Google CEO Eric Schmidt said at a news conference at the museum this week.

The Baghdad museum was victim to widespread looting during and after the invasion, with 15,000 items going missing. Since then, some 6,000 have been returned.