New York - The United Nations Security Council yesterday renewed for six months an oil-for-food deal with Iraq, but delayed a possible expansion of the humanitarian scheme.
The 15-member Security Council, expressing concern about the nutritional and health situation in Iraq, unanimously adopted resolution 1143 providing for the third phase of the humanitarian arrangement to come into effect at early today.
The programme, enshrined in resolution 986, provides for Iraq to export $2 billion worth of oil every
six months in return for badly-needed food and medicine. The renewal came after two days of negotiations in which the French and Russian delegations forced the resolution's US and British co-sponsors to indicate that an increase would be considered in two months.