The United Nations Security Council has renewed Iraq's oil-for-food programme for another six months.

Under the deal, Iraq is allowed to sell oil to buy badly needed humanitarian aid.

The Council also allowed Iraq to buy another three-hundred-million dollars worth of spare parts for its oil facilities.

The oil-for-food programme was introduced in 1996 to enable Iraq to overcome some of the effects of economic sanctions which were imposed after its invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

At the same time, the ambassadors of China, Russia and France have held informal talks with the chief UN weapons inspector, Richard Butler, on the latest dispute over documents which the inspectors want handed over.

The Iraqis maintain that some of the documents requested do not exist, while others requested are irrelevant.