Global Policy Forum

The US Government has decided to postpone efforts to change the system of UN sanctions against Iraq. Instead, the present oil-for-food arrangements - which are due to expire on Sunday - will be extended for up to six months.

The United States and Britain want to answer criticism that sanctions mainly hurt ordinary Iraqis by changing them to focus more on preventing Iraq from obtaining arms and weapons-making equipment. But a US official said it would probably take about a month to deal with concerns raised by Russia, France and China about the new "smart" sanctions.

Correspondents say the delay is a major setback for US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who made revising the sanctions a high priority when he took office in January.

More time

A US official said that during talks in Budapest between Mr Powell and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov on Tuesday and Wednesday, the Russians asked for more time for their experts to go through the details of prohibited items. Mr Powell said he was optimistic that the controversy would soon be resolved. He said there was "general agreement" that the crippling sanctions imposed after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990 had "lost some of their effectiveness".

International support for the embargo has dwindled amid a growing perception that they hurt the Iraqi people more than President Saddam Hussein. The US and its allies are reported to be facing difficulties persuading Turkey, Syria and Jordan to give up their profits from a lucrative trade in smuggled Iraqi oil. Syria has been buying more than 100,000 barrels a day of Iraqi oil, at a discount because the money goes straight to the Iraqi Government, not to the UN account which receives most oil revenues.

Oil-for-food

Under the oil-for-food programme, Iraq is allowed to sell limited amounts of oil. The money goes into a UN-controlled escrow account and can be used to purchase food, medicine, and humanitarian goods.

The US-UK sanctions plan would keep the escrow account in place and use some of the revenues to pay Iraq's UN dues. The money would also be used to bolster anti-smuggling controls. Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz has threatened to cut off oil supplies to Jordan and Turkey if they co-operate with that plan.

The sanctions were designed to force Saddam Hussein to allow UN weapons inspectors access to Iraq to ensure it did not have chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. The inspectors were withdrawn two and a half years ago before an escalation in US-UK bombing of Iraq, and have not been allowed to return.