US wants Iraqi sanctions lifted except for arms

The United States yesterday proposed lifting UN sanctions on Iraq, except for an arms embargo, without making this conditional on UN arms inspections as demanded by other Security Council members.

The eight-page draft resolution, obtained by Reuters and circulated to key Security Council, would allow Iraq to sell oil again and deposit the revenues in an "Iraqi Assistance Fund" to be used for humanitarian purposes and reconstruction.

This new institution would have an advisory board that would include envoys from the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. But decisions on where to spend the money would be made by the United States and Britain in consultation with an Iraqi interim authority.

The draft does not call for the return of UN arms inspectors to verify that Iraq no longer has weapons of mass destruction, which was specified in some 16 earlier UN resolutions and has been demanded by other council members.

US Ambassador John Negroponte, who was briefing council members, said the Bush administration did not see "any role for the UN (inspectors) for the foreseeable future."

"The coalition has taken over the process of inspecting in Iraq for weapons of mass destruction," he told reporters.

The document requests Secretary-General Kofi Annan to appoint a special coordinator to supervise UN humanitarian assistance and "reconstruction activities in Iraq."

This person would operate alongside the United States and Britain, designated as occupying powers, who would have authority in Iraq for 12 months.

The coordinator would play a nominal role in establishing governing institutions, promoting human rights, legal and judicial reforms, and helping build an Iraqi police force.

France, Russia, China and even staunch ally Britain had advocated a stronger UN role, which they said was needed to give a US-backed Iraqi authority international legitimacy.

The resolution would phase out the UN oil-for-food humanitarian programme over four months but honor "priority civilian goods" in contracts already approved. It was unclear whether all approved contracts for supplies, including $1.6 billion in Russian contracts, would be fulfilled.

Without adoption of the resolution, no Iraqi or US entity in Baghdad has the legal authority to export oil. The United States wants the measure passed by June 3, when the oil-for-food programme needs to be renewed.

The programme was designed to ease the impact of sanctions imposed when Saddam Hussein's troops invaded Kuwait in August 1990. It allowed Iraq to sell oil to purchase food, medicine and other civilian goods under UN supervision. Oil revenues are deposited into a UN escrow account to pay suppliers.

The oil-for-food fund now has some $13 billion in outstanding contracts for food, medicine and other civilian goods ordered by the ousted government of Saddam Hussein.

The draft resolution also asks all countries to facilitate safe return of Iraq cultural property looted from the Iraq National Museum and National Library in the days after the fall of Saddam Hussein and prohibit trade in these artifacts.

Some copies of the draft were given to France, Russia, China as well as Germany, who all opposed the US invasion of Iraq. All 15 council members expected a copy by this morning, after individual briefings by Negroponte.

In Moscow, the Interfax news agency quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov as saying Russia believed the sanctions on Iraq should be canceled but that no new UN Security Council resolution was needed."