UN to release money for generating electricity in Iraq

The chairman of the UN humanitarian program in Iraq said on Wednesday that "direct measures" were taken to release sums allotted for generating electricity in Iraq.

In a statement issued in Baghdad the UN official, Benoun Seifan, said that those sums relate to 17 contracts at a total sum of US $81.71 million which were approved during the third and fourth stages of the oil-for-food program, covering the period from November 1997 until November 1998.

The most important of these contracts is the one valued at US $74.9 million, which provides for supplying Iraq with six units for electricity generation operated by gas, with its necessary spare parts and to be imported from China.

Seifan added that the contract with China comes after a contract was signed and ratified with a Russian company and sums were allotted at the end of 1998 at a cost of US $ 70.5 million.

On Sunday, Iraqi Minister of Trade Mohammad Mahdi Saleh said that until "then" his country did not receive any of the spare parts it asked for to carry out repairs in six sectors, including that of electricity.