Egypt for lifting UN sanctions imposed on Iraq

Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa on Sunday expressed his desire to lift the economic sanctions imposed in Iraq, bringing woes to the Iraqi people.

In a joint press conference with his Iraq counterpart Muhammad Saeed al-Sahaf on Sunday, Moussa added that Iraq is going ahead with the implementation of the UN resolutions and the UN-Iraqi Understanding Agreement which was concluded with the UN chief Annan. For his part, the Iraqi minister stressed his country's commitment to implementing what was agreed on with the UN, noting that Butler's report is groundless.

Richard Butler, head of the UN weapons inspection team in Iraq, accused Iraq of not providing relevant information that would account for supposed missing biological material, which Iraq claimed was destroyed. Butler is due to present his 6-months investigation report this week, through UN's Secretary-General Kofi Annan, to the UN Security Council. Iraq's lifting of the sanctions depend on the UN Security Council expressing satisfaction that Iraq has met its obligations under the sanctions regime.

Al-Sahaf left Cairo heading for New York, following a two-day official visit to Egypt to attend the presentation of the UN inspections result report.