United Nations, June 17: The United Nations expects to pay more than USD 100 million to shut down Iraq's Oil-for-Food Programme, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said. The council voted last month to lift all economic sanctions against Iraq and to eliminate the programme by November 21.

The programme allowed the former Iraqi regime to sell unlimited quantities of oil, provided most of the money went to buy food, medicine and other humanitarian goods. The programme was adopted in 1996 to help ordinary Iraqis cope with sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

The "best estimate for all known and projected costs" associated with phasing out the programme over six months is USD 106 million, Annan said in a report yesterday.

At the end of the six-month period, the US-led coalition will take charge of all responsibilities from the Oil-for-Food Programme.

Iraq exported 3.4 billion barrels of oil under the programme, generating some USD 64 billion in revenue, according to the United Nations. Nearly USD 27 billion in humanitarian supplies were delivered to Iraq under the programme.

The rest of the proceeds from oil sales went toward war reparations, weapons inspections and the oil-for-food programme's administrative costs.

Annan suspended the programme in March, on the eve of the US-led military campaign that toppled Saddam Hussein's regime. UN humanitarian workers returned to Iraq in late April, and distribution of the programme's regular monthly food ration resumed June 1.


Bureau Report