By LEON BARKHO
                THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

                BAGHDAD, Iraq -- For 12-year-old Ali Fadhil, Iraq's
                dire economic state means making do with a piece of
                bread and a cup of tea for breakfast, and just rice for
                dinner.

                The government says citizens like Ali are suffering
                because of U.N. trade sanctions, and because the
                United States stalls approval of humanitarian shipments
                allowed under the oil-for-food program. U.S. officials
                counter that the culprit is Baghdad, for not using hard
                currency from the deal to help its people.

                "You ask me hard questions," Ali told a reporter
                yesterday when asked about life in Baghdad. "I can tell
                you without the food rations we get free from the
                government, life could not go on."

                Two top U.N. officials who resigned in frustration this
                week blame both sides for squeezing ordinary Iraqis in
                a political vise.

                "I do not think it is fair to make the civilian population
                subject to bargaining . . . (by) the government of Iraq
                on the one hand and the other in the Security Council.
                The real victims are those who walk the streets of
                Baghdad, Basra and Mosul," said Hans von Sponeck,
                who resigned Sunday as the top U.N. official in charge
                of humanitarian relief in Iraq.

                U.N. World Food Program chief Jutta Burghardt
                resigned Tuesday, saying she fully supported von
                Sponeck. Burghardt said the suffering of civilians is
                bound to continue because the Iraqi government is
                digging in its heels against a new U.N. resolution that
                could make it easier to meet humanitarian needs.

                In Washington yesterday, several House members
                asked President Clinton to ease non-military sanctions
                on Iraq, saying children were suffering. Rep. David
                Bonior, a Michigan Democrat, called the sanctions
                "infanticide masquerading as policy."

                In a report last year, the United Nations Children's
                Fund said that in state-controlled areas of Iraq, the
                mortality rate among children under 5 had more than
                doubled in 10 years.

                Iraq's economy has been crippled by nearly a decade
                of strict economic sanctions imposed after Baghdad's
                1990 invasion of Kuwait. The sanctions cannot be lifted
                until weapons inspectors certify Iraq is free of weapons
                of mass destruction.

                A decade ago, one Iraqi dinar bought more than three
                dollars. Today, the dinar has tumbled to nearly 2,000 to
                $1.

                After 20 years of government service, Ali's father gets a
                pension of 250 dinars a month.

                "My father is very sad, very sad," said Ali, his thin frame
                covered by a torn shirt. He hid worn shoes under his
                desk at al-Waqidi Primary School.

                No one in Ali's class wore new clothes. Among the 28
                pupils, 10 said they worked in the afternoons to help
                support their families.

                The school recently received new desks and
                blackboards as part of shipments of essential supplies
                Iraq is allowed to import under the U.N. program,
                which allows Iraq to sell oil and use the revenues to buy
                goods for civilians.

                The deal, initiated in 1996, is an exception to sanctions.
                The world body hoped the program would improve the
                quality of life of Iraq's 22 million people.

                The desks and blackboards were the only signs of
                improvement in Ali's life.

                His family of eight lives in two rooms. Ali's breakfast
                consists of bread and tea. He doesn't remember when
                he last ate meat. The typical main dinner dish for his
                family is rice. Millions of state employees and retirees
                rely on meager monthly food rations.

                Ban Ibrahim, the teacher, called Ali one of her best
                students.

                "But I feel there's little or no scope to nurture talented
                boys like him," she said.