Annan, Sabri discuss possibility of ending sanctions on Iraq

The Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri arrived on Monday evening in Vienna where he will be meeting on Thursday and Friday with the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

AFP quoted a source at the Austrian foreign ministry as saying that Sabri and Annan will negotiate on a possible to lift for the sanctions imposed on Iraq since 1990 for the return back of UN inspectors to Baghdad, SANA reported.

The spokesman said that the leader of the Austrian "Freedom party" Yurg Haider received the Iraqi minister, who expressed that the support of Iraq's friends in Austria will improve the process of negotiations with the UN.

On the other hand, officials at the UN said on Tuesday that Iraq's exports of crude oil settled on 1.1 million barrel a day, by the week which ended on June 28th.

During that week three oil shipment of Basra light oil were exported from al-Baker port which overlooks the Arab Gulf at an average of 729,000 barrels, while two other shipments were exported from the Turkish Jeihan port which overlooks the Mediterranean at an average of 414,000 barrels a day, in average.

This, however, represents half of Iraq's exportat capacity estimated at 2.2 million barrels daily. Iraq's one barrel of oil' price increased by 70 cents to reach USD 23.65 and oil exports average reached during 4 weeks 764,000 barrels a day. Since the beginning of the current year the average becomes 1.2 million barrels a day.