Iraq has offered the US-led coalition to put hundreds of accused foreign militants on trial in Baghdad in exchange for millions of dollars, three government sources have told AFP. Western countries have been rocked by fierce public debate over whether to repatriate their citizens who joined the ISIS group, which held swathes of Iraq and Syria for years before losing its last speck of land last month. Around 1,000 suspected foreign ISIS fighters are in detention in northeast Syria, in addition to around 9,000 foreign women and children in Kurdish-run camps there. Iraq has proposed trying and sentencing the foreign suspects if the US-led coalition covers operational costs, three Iraqi officials have said. "These countries have a problem, heres a solution," one told AFP, speaking anonymously because he was not authorized to give details to the press. The source said Iraq had proposed a rate of $2 million per suspect per year, calculated based on the estimated operational costs of a detainee in US-run Guantanamo. "We made the proposal last week but have not gotten a response yet," the source added. A second official said Iraq had requested $2 billion to try the suspects as "one of several options," and could ask for "more money to cover the costs of their detention." Iraq has already tried and sentenced several hundred foreign ISIS members, and others are in detention in Baghdad awaiting trial. They include at least 12 French nationals who were transferred from Syria in February. A third Iraqi official said detainees from as many as 52 countries could be put on trial in Baghdad. "Iraq proposed to the coalition setting up a special tribunal to try foreigners. Theres been a constructive beginning to those discussions," the source said. The source added that Iraq had opted to propose the arrangement to the US-led coalition as a whole because it was simpler than negotiating with each country individually. Syrias Kurds have called for an international court in northeast Syria to try ISIS militants, but the US says countries should repatriate their own citizens. Transferring foreign fighters to Iraq for trial appears to resolve a legal conundrum for Western powers, many of whom fear they may not have enough evidence to convict ISIS members who claim they did not fight. In a related development, Austria said on Wednesday that it wanted its citizens who have fought for ISIS to be tried in UN-style tribunals in the Middle East rather than brought home for prosecution. Austrias far-right interior minister, Herbert Kickl, called for "tribunals in the region" to be set up to deal with those who had left Austria and other European countries to join ISIS, whom he referred to as "ticking time bombs". "I have turned to the three EU commissioners responsible with the request that this be made into a pan-European project," Kickl told a news conference after a weekly cabinet meeting, adding that Germany, Sweden and Finland support the idea. Roughly 100 "foreign fighters" who had traveled from Austria were in ISIS combat zones in Syria and Iraq at the start of the year, Austrian media reported in February, citing an estimate Austrias main intelligence service. Only some of those were believed to be Austrians. Kickl said it would be cheaper and more efficient to organize trials in the Middle East at special tribunals rather than hold individual trials in various European countries. "Just imagine, you would have to fly in witnesses from Iraq, Syria and elsewhere for a trial in Austria," Kickl said, adding that Austria was capable of trying these people but that would be "more complicated". "If the European Commission can support it and if we can agree on cooperation with the United Nations we will use what was done in Rwanda as a model," Kickl said, apparently referring to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, a UN body based in the Tanzanian city of Arusha. A government spokesman said Kickls proposal was supported by both Kickls far-right Freedom Party and Chancellor Sebastian Kurzs conservatives, which together have taken a hard line on immigration and law-and-order issues.