Iraq ready to resume oil exports, says minister

Iraqi Oil Minister Amir Muhammad Rashid said on Saturday that Iraq was ready to resume oil exports under its oil-for-food deal with the UN, as soon as a new aid distribution plan was endorsed, the Iraqi news agency INA reported.

Speaking after talks in Baghdad with Jordanian Energy Minister Muhammad Salih al-Hurani, Rashid "stressed that Iraq is ready to resume the exportation of crude oil to the international market as soon as the new distribution plan is endorsed.

He indicated that the oil tanks at the Iraqi Mina' al-Bakr terminal and the Turkish port of Ceyhan are ready and contain good quantities of oil," the agency said.

Rashid said that when signing contracts within the third phase of the deal, Iraq would "give precedence to oil companies from friendly states".

"The Iraqi oil minister held the US Administration responsible for the delay of the implementation of the oil-for-food-and-medicine formula and the subsequent substantial delay in the arrival of food and medical supplies despite Iraq's marketing of the entire oil quotas," INA reported.

BBC Monitoring (http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk), based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.