UN official to meet with Iraqi officials

The executive director of the UN Office for the Iraq Program (OIP), Benan Sevan, left yesterday for Iraq, where he is to meet with senior Iraqi official on the possibility of increasing Iraq's ability to export oil, as well as with a group of UN oil experts charged with preparing a report for the UN Security Council on the requirements for increasing Iraq's oil production capacity.

Meanwhile, OIP announced that US Secretary General Kofi Annan has approved the Iraqi government's latest plan to distribute revenues generated under the current phase of the oil-for-food program. The plan proposes $3 billion in expenditures on humanitarian supplies, including $300 million in spare parts and equipment for the oil industry.

This comes as in the past week 38,000 tonnes of wheat, 51,000 tonnes of rice and 3,700 tonnes of soap and detergents along with other supplies arrived in Iraq.