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Source: Agence France-Presse (AFP) Date: 25 Apr 2003 US to offer proposal to end Iraqi sanctions next week: report WASHINGTON, April 25 (AFP) - The United States plans to propose next week a UN Security Council resolution lifting all international sanctions against Iraq and putting oil revenues under US control until an interim authority takes over in Baghdad, The Washington Post said Friday. Crafted Wednesday at a meeting of top White House advisers, the resolution relegates the United Nations to a consultive role through a special representative of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, senior US officials told the daily. The resolution would firmly endorse control by the United States and its military allies over international involvement in Iraq until a permanent, representative government is in place, the daily said. While still being drafted, the proposal contains specific instructions for the Iraqi oil industry, the profits of which would be moved from UN control to an Iraqi Central Bank and used on reconstruction activities designated either by the Pentagon or by the Iraqi Interim Authority once it is in place, officials involved with the discussions said. An international financial authority such as the International Monetary Fund or the World Bank would monitor the disbursements of the oil funds, they added. The administration of President George W. Bush quickly began drawing up the proposal to lift the sanctions on Iraq, in the wake of France's call to suspend the sanctions earlier this week -- only days after the US called for ending them altogether. US officials suspected that the French were trying to preempt a sanctions-lifting resolution, the US officials said. "We thought, we need to fill in the blank here and start talking about the end stage" before others move in on the council, an official said. "Had France not done what they did... we might have waited a week or two." The quickness of the resolution decision also led to the adoption of the Pentagon's proposal for a broad elimination of all UN control over Iraq, instead of the State Department's preferred gradual approach, the daily said. The Washingron Post said US officials see June 3, when the currently extended UN-admnistered oil-for-food program for Iraq expires, as an internal US deadline for the complete lifting of UN control. _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk