UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has forwarded
to the President of the Security Council a detailed list of parts and equipment
that Iraq proposes to buy under the current phase of UN "oil-for-food"
programme.
In the letter, issued today as a document,
the Secretary-General also repeated his recommendation from last year that
the allocation for the oil sector under the programme's previous phase
be increased from $300 million to $600 million, and noted that funds were
available for such an increase.
On Iraq's request to spend $600 additional million in the present phase, the Secretary-General said he wanted to first see the report of the group of experts currently assessing the state of the oil industry in Iraq. Unless contracts for key items of oil equipment were approved and arrived within a short time frame, he added, oil production in Iraq was likely to drop.
Last week, Iraq exported 14.1 million barrels of oil, bringing total oil exports since 12 December to 54.3 million barrels, for an estimated revenue of $1.3 billion.