BBC News Online: Despatches

Iraq rejects US charges of indifference

The Iraqi government has denied recent US claims that it is responsible for the suffering of its own people by withholding food and medicine. Speaking at a trade fair in Sharjah, Iraq's Trade Minister instead called upon the UN to reveal the accounts of the UN-approved oil-for-food deal, saying Iraq's oil revenues were being misused. Our correspondent, Frank Gardner, reports from Dubai:

Iraq's Trade Minister, Mohammed Mehdi Saleh, chose his visit to the UAE to renew his government's criticism of the UN's oil-for-food deal. He said Iraq was still awaiting delivery of 60% of the food owed and that Iraq needed 300 million dollars worth of food each month.

As a result of shortages, he said, 1.4 million Iraqis had died. Placing the blame on US obstruction of contracts, Mohammed Saleh said I call upon the UN to reveal the bills of the French bank, BNB, to identify through dates how Iraqi oil revenues were misused by Americans.

Iraq recently suspended its oil exports, saying the UN arrangement was not working. But President Clinton has blamed the policies of Iraq's President Saddam Hussein for the suffering of ordinary Iraqis.

Yet despite the sanctions which have hurt Iraq's economy over the last seven years, Iraq's Trade Minister said construction was booming in his country. Speaking at the Afro-Arab trade fair in Sharjah on Saturday, his words will have been eagerly devoured by Gulf merchants keen to do business with Iraq.

According to the daily paper, Gulf News, the minister confirmed that the UAE will be offered the major share of infrastructure projects in Iraq but that will only happen once sanctions are lifted -- a day which many people in the Gulf increasingly look forward to.

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