Iraqi crude oil sales have exceeded $10.6 billion since last year's US-led invasion, the US-led authority governing Iraq said on Monday.

The Coalition Provisional Authority, set to dissolve at the end of the month when an interim government takes over in Iraq, had deposited $10.62 billion in its Development Fund for Iraq as of last Thursday, it said in an Internet posting.

Of the total oil proceeds put in the fund since it was set up on May 28, 2003, $242 million was deposited during the week ended last Thursday, compared with $372 million the previous week, according to the provisional authority's Web site (http://www.iraqcoalition.org/budget/DFI_intro1.html).

Apart from the Web site, which is updated weekly, the provisional authority provides no public data on sales of Iraqi oil, such as volume or price information or the reasons for weekly fluctuations in deposits into the fund.

But shipping sources said on Monday that Iraq's Kirkuk pipeline had not pumped oil to Turkey for over two weeks. Iraqi sources said last week an attack on the 965-km oil pipeline to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan had crippled flows.

The pipeline last pumped on May 31, the sources said. Under a May 2003 UN Security Council resolution, the Coalition Provisional Authority is required to deposit all proceeds of Iraqi oil exports into the Development Fund for Iraq.

The resolution was intended to ensure the US-led civil administration was not engaged in any dubious practices in marketing the oil and was using the money for reconstruction.

The Security Council last week unanimously adopted a resolution returning to Iraq full control over its vast oil resources, beginning in July.

While the new government will be free to spend the money as it wishes, it will have to continue depositing the oil and gas money in the development fund, where it can be tracked by an international watchdog agency known as the International Advisory and Monitoring Board.