Global Policy Forum

France yesterday floated some compromise proposals that support in principle but water down a U.S.-British U.N. resolution seeking to ease sanctions against Iraq on imports of civilian goods. The French suggestions, obtained by Reuters, are meant to bridge the gap between Moscow, which has balked at the entire U.S.-British draft resolution, and Washington and London, which want the UN Security Council to adopt it this week.

But diplomats said it was increasingly unlikely that would be the case. If so, the question is whether the current phase of the UN humanitarian oil-for-food program, which expires on Sunday, would be rolled over for one month or six months while negotiations continue.

Russia, council sources said, was "not interested" in the French proposals either. In Budapest, Hungary, yesterday, the foreign ministers of Russia, France, the United States and Britain met at the edge of a NATO meeting but gave few details, indicating a definitive deal had not been struck. All four countries, along with China, are permanent Security Council members with veto power. The French proposals would free sanctions from civilian goods as Britain and the United States want but call for a one-month delay in deciding on a key lengthy list of "dual use" goods that can have military and civilian applications. In an effort to counter critical world opinion of the sanctions, the U.S.-British resolution aims at allowing all civilian goods to go to Iraq, from bicycles to whiskey, but formulates a list of banned or questionable supplies, from sophisticated computers to some telecommunications.

Among other measures, France also wants the $3 billion worth of contracts for Iraq that the United States has blocked released once a new resolution on the oil-for-food programme is adopted. That program, which regulates oil sales from and goods going to Baghdad, was meant to ease the impact of sanctions, imposed when Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990. The oil-for-food plan requires proceeds from Iraqi oil sales to be put in a UN escrow fund out of which suppliers for goods imported to Iraq are paid.

The United States, Britain and France would keep the fund intact, thereby denying Baghdad free use of its monies. Other French proposals include allowing each of Iraq's neighbors to purchase up to 200,000 barrels of oil per day rather than 150,000 barrels as the British and Americans propose. But it agrees to leave arrangements for closer border monitoring to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, although its proposals spell those measures out in less detail. A major difference, however, is on civilian flights going to Iraq. France says all such flights can go in regardless of where they originate.

The carriers would have to notify Annan "in a timely" fashion and "ensure that the aircraft lands in any state where it could be inspected by national authorities with the secretary-general's assistance." In contrast, Britain and the United States only want aircraft to be flown into Iraq from designated locations and insist cargo be inspected "in the presence of UN observers" after a five-day notification to Annan.

France also repeats an earlier request that Iraq's contribution to a UN reparations fund for Kuwait be lowered to 20 percentage points of its oil revenue from the current 25 per cent. The British and the Americans are likely to oppose that reduction. France also would authorize Jordan and Tunisia to return to Iraq civilian aircraft they currently hold, whereas the British and Americans say they could sell them and put the money in the UN escrow account.

Russia as well as Iraq reject any resolution that perpetuates the sanctions. Baghdad has threatened to cut off oil to the world if the measure is adopted, and Russia, according to diplomats, has warned its Security Council colleagues not to provoke Iraq.