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Monday June 14 11:13 PM ET UN OKs Food Distribution in Iraq UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Secretary-General Kofi Annan has approved Iraq's six-month plan to distribute goods from the U.N. oil-for-food program, but stressed that food and medicine remain a priority for Baghdad. Iraq submitted the distribution proposal last week, suggesting that just over $3 billion from U.N.-supervised oil exports be used to buy food, medicine and other humanitarian supplies, including $300 million for oil industry spare parts. Iraq has been barred from selling its oil on the open market since the Security Council imposed an oil embargo following its 1990 invasion of Kuwait. The Security Council launched the oil-for-food program in 1996 to try to care for Iraqis suffering under the sanctions. Baghdad is allowed to export $5.26 billion in oil over six months, but has only managed to export around $3 billion over the past year because of low oil prices and production limits. Iraq is also allowed to use funds from oil sales to rebuild its infrastructure, as well as use $300 million over six months to buy oil industry spare parts. A group of oil experts has been in Iraq for the past week as part of the preparations for a new report due later this month to the Security Council on the requirements of rebuilding the oil industry, which was decimated by the Gulf War and nearly nine years of sanctions. -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a discussion list run by Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To be removed/added, email soc-casi-discuss-request@lists.cam.ac.uk, NOT the whole list. Archived at http://linux.clare.cam.ac.uk/~saw27/casi/discuss.html