Reports from Iraq say the government will refuse to extend the oil-for-food agreement with the United Nations that allows it to sell a limited amount of oil every six months to buy food and humanitarian supplies.

The Iraqi Trade Minister, Mouhammed Mehdi Saleh, is reported as saying that Baghdad will also expel the four-hundred-strong UN team which adminsiters the programme, but gave no date.

He said Iraq wanted an end to UN sanctions, and that meant the UN team must be expelled.

The United Nations says there has been no formal request.

On Sunday, a meeting of Arab parliamentarians in Jordan condemned the American and British air-raids against Iraq, but stopped short of endorsing calls to break the United Nations embargo.