Kuwait and Saudi Arabia insisted today that Baghdad must honour its debts to victims of the 1991 Gulf War.
A day after the US handed over sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government, the two oil-exporting giants, who have lodged claims worth billions of dollars against Iraq for damage from the 1991 Gulf War, said there should be no interruption in the flow of payments to a United Nations-administered compensation fund.
A recent UN Security Council resolution said 5 per cent of Iraqi oil revenues must continue to go to Gulf War victims. But it laid down no mechanism to ensure compliance once Britain and the United States had transferred control of revenues to Iraq.
The UN Compensation Commission has received claims valued at $350 billion from individuals, companies and governments for damages from Iraq's August 1990 invasion and seven-month occupation of Kuwait.
Saudi Arabia is seeking more than $28 billion for damage to its environment caused by Iraqi troops setting oil wellheads on fire as they fled a US-led coalition, Saudi officials said.