Iraq agreed yesterday to another six-month extension of an oil-for-food deal with the United Nations, and prepared to resume exporting its crude.
Iraq's official notification to the UN ended weeks of speculation over the humanitarian programme and the Iraqi oil flow to world markets. An Iraqi oil official said exports were ready to flow once weather permitted in the southern port of Mina al-Bakr.
UN-mandated paperwork might also be holding up some of the export flows. Industry sources said some of the tankers queuing in the Gulf needed to have their letters of credit renewed before loading could commence.
Iraq had suspended some 2.3 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil sales since December 1st over a price dispute with the UN.
The Iraqi Foreign Minister, Mr Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, relayed Iraq's acceptance of the extension in a letter to the UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan.
In the letter, Mr Sahaf repeated Baghdad's claim over what it says is the Security Council's bias against Iraq and its domination by the US and Britain.
The memorandum of understanding which originally set up the programme in 1996 "was supposed to be temporary and for six months only, according to a Security Council resolution," said Mr Sahaf's letter, carried by the Iraqi News Agency (INA).
"But America and Britain have dealt and still deal with this memorandum as a substitute for lifting the embargo and its permanent status," it said.
The UN Security Council voted unanimously on December 5th to renew for six months the humanitarian programme, the lifeline for 23 million people living under sanctions.
The programme, first introduced in December 1996, allows Iraq to sell oil under strict UN supervision to buy food, medicine, oil equipment and other goods to ease the impact of sanctions in effect since Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990.
The Iraqi leadership, at a weekend meeting chaired by President Saddam Hussein, had criticised the extension but did not reject it. The leadership's stand was seen as tacit approval.