Iraqi leadership meets on next steps after UN sanctions extended

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on Wednesday presided over a joint meeting for the revolution's council leadership and the ruling Baath party leadership to discuss relations between Iraq and the UN following the decision of the UN not to lift sanctions imposed on Iraq for eight years.

The Iraqi News Agency said the meeting was held "in the context of items outlined in the statement of the revolution's leadership council and al-Iraq party leadership issued on April 16."

The statement said : "Now it is ripe time to implement article 22 of UN resolution 687 as a prelude to totally and immediately lift the embargo imposed on Iraq." The agency said the Iraqi leadership will discuss the "report of Iraqi Foreign Minister Muhammad Saeed al-Sahaf's activities and contacts in New York with the UN secretary-general and UN Security Council members."

Meanwhile, the Iraqi minister of culture and information, Humam Abdul Khaleq Abdul Ghafour, said the UN Security Council decision to keep sanctions on Iraq is still under study. He criticized the report submitted by UNSCOM director Richard Butler to the UN Security Council, expressing his belief that the Americans themselves wrote the report rather than the Australian diplomat.