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Jordan Collects 600,000 Pencils for Iraqi Children AMMAN, January 6 (Xinhua) -- A pro-Iraq Jordanian committee has collected some 600,000 pencils as donations for sanctions-hit Iraqi children since it launched a "million pencils" campaign in December, committee sources said Thursday. The National Mobilization Committee For the Defense of Iraq, an independent committee representing political parties and trade unions in the kingdom, also decided to extend the pencil-collecting campaign until January 18 rather than 10 as originally planned. The largest contribution by individuals so far came from British Member of Parliament George Galloway, who arrived in Amman Tuesday and donated 10,000 pencils to the committee. Galloway has been lobbying extensively in the region to draw international attention to the sufferings of the Iraqi people under the sweeping sanctions imposed on Baghdad by the United Nations after Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait in the 1990 Gulf crisis. The nationwide pencil-collecting campaign was aimed at collecting 1 million pencils from all walks of live in the kingdom as a show of solidarity to the Iraqi people, the committee said in a statement. Jordan was sympathetic with Iraq during the Gulf crisis, but it has been trying to mend ties with Gulf Arab states damaged by its stand since the Gulf war ended in Iraq's defeat by the U.S.-led coalition forces. Meanwhile, the kingdom, which relies mainly on Iraq for free and cheaper crude supplies, also tried to save and keep its traditionally friendly ties with it. Under the U.N. oil-for-food formula for Iraq, Jordan gets 75,000 barrels of crude oil everyday from Iraq, half as free grants and the rest at a preferential price. Enditem nnnn -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a discussion list run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq For removal from list, email soc-casi-discuss-request@lists.cam.ac.uk Full archive and list instructions are available from the CASI website: http://welcome.to/casi