Oil executives fly to Iraq

Iraq's oil industry was targeted during the Gulf War

A group of Russian oil executives have flown to Iraq where a United Nations sanctions is in force on commercial flights.

The UN committee which oversees the Security Council sanctions against Iraq said it authorised the flight after the group applied for permission.

The Iraqi news agency said the flight also carried humanitarian supplies, which conform to goods permitted into the country under the UN sanctions.

The Security Council has seen stiff debates on the flight ban

A member of the Russian team Arngolt Bekker, director of Stroytransgaz pipeline company, said they were there to hold talks with oil ministry officials on how to boost co-operation between Russia and Iraq.

Iraq's news agency quoted Mr Bekker as saying: "The trip is an expression of Russia's rejection of the flight ban illegally imposed on Iraq."

Divided house

Correspondents say members of the Security Council are divided over the flight ban to Iraq.

Russia and France, two of Iraq's strongest allies on the Security Council, are not in favour of the ban and say the council never adopted a specific text banning all flights to and from Iraq.

The United States and Britain are major supporters of the ban and maintain civil flights constitute an economic resource, making their reinstatement a breach of the sanctions.

The move comes just days after US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright criticised plans by the Russian airline Aeroflot to re-open offices in Baghdad, in case UN sanctions were lifted.

The UN wants Iraq to destroy its weapons of mass destruction before the sanctions are lifted.

They were imposed after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990, which was reversed by a US-led allied coalition the following year.