The United Nations has transferred 2.6 billion dollars to the Fund for the Development of Iraq, which is managed by the US-British coalition that spearheaded the war on Iraq last year and today occupies the country, an official UN source said. The fund is an evolution of the UN seven-year-old oil-for-food program, whose functions were transferred to the coalition by a UN Security Council resolution last May 22.

The 2.6 billion transfer, done in the closing hours of 2003, was the fourth and largest to the fund. One billion was transferred on May 24, a second billion in October and a third in November.

The oil-for-food program, set up in 1996, was intended to mitigate the effects of international sanctions imposed on Iraq after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, by using UN-controlled sales of Iraqi oil to buy food and medicine for the civilian population. In the ensuing seven years, according to UN figures, the program has generated oil revenues totaling 65 billion dollars. Of that, 46 billion has been allocated to the food program, with the rest going to compensate victims of the invasion of Kuwait and financing the costs of administration and arms inspections.

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