Morocco flight due in Baghdad

Iraqis are angry at years of UN sanctions

A plane carrying aid supplies from Morocco is expected in Iraq on Saturday.

A coalition of non-governmental organisations say they are sending the supplies to Baghdad despite the United Nations embargo on Iraq.

"We notified the United Nations sanctions committee about this flight but we don't expect the green light, so the plane will leave anyway," said the group's spokesman, Mohammad Lakhssassi.

It is the latest in a series of flights that have arrived in Baghdad aimed at undermining the UN embargo, which was imposed on Iraq in 1990 after it invaded Kuwait.

Similar flights from Yemen and Jordan have already arrived in Baghdad.

This is a humanitarian step taken to show solidarity with the Iraqi people

Yemeni Deputy Prime Minister Abdul-Kader Bajammal

Iraq has welcomed these flights, saying they represent the gradual disintegration of the 10-year-old sanctions regime.

The 'flights-to-Baghdad' movement is being seen as a clear propaganda boost to President Saddam Hussein.

Campaigners

Three Russian flights and one French plane have already made the journey to the Iraqi capital since the reopening of Baghdad International Airport in August.

In April, a plane carrying French campaigners and an Italian politician flew to Baghdad from Jordan.

Iraqi Deputy PM Tariq Aziz says flights defy the US

A Yemeni flight which arrived in Baghdad on Friday carried humanitarian supplies and a delegation of senior government officials.

Yemeni Deputy Prime Minister Abdul-Kader Bajammal said the flight was "intended to show solidarity with the Iraqi people and we hope that the sanctions are lifted soon."

However, a second French flight due to leave on Friday carrying medicines and a group of French intellectuals, has been cancelled.

Disarmament

The British and US governments say sanctions cannot be lifted until Iraq has fully complied with Gulf War resolutions on disarmament.

Iraq must not be encouraged to think that international rehabilitation and defiance of the UN are compatible

British Foreign Office

But Baghdad has refused to allow UN weapons inspectors to return to Iraq since they left in December 1998, ahead of a four-day bombing campaign launched by US and British forces.

A spokeswoman at Britain's Foreign Office said the UK government has no problem with humanitarian flights, as long as they are approved by the UN sanctions committee.

"In fact, we have encouraged humanitarian organisations to make flights to Iraq," the spokeswoman told BBC News Online.

However, British officials have said they would view any attempt by commercial airlines to fly passengers to Baghdad as trade and therefore a violation of the sanctions rules.

The Russian airline Aeroflot recently said it wants to resume scheduled flights to Iraq.