BAGHDAD, Aug 1 (AFP) - Iraq accused the United States and Britain on
Tuesday of blocking contracts for the repair of a disused Gulf oil
terminal whose start-up would boost export capacity to more than three
million barrels per day (bpd).

"US and British representatives on the UN sanctions committee are
blocking
the approval of contracts allowing the import of equipment for
repairing
Mina al-Amaya" oil terminal, Oil Minister Amer Rashid told Al-Qadissiya
newspaper.

"The first contracts signed by Iraq have all been blocked," he said.

Rafed Debuni, head of state-run Southern Petroleum Company, said on
June 7
that the offshore terminal, which was damaged during the 1980-1988 war
against Iran and destroyed during the 1991 Gulf War, would be in
operation
"soon" with a loading capacity of 700,000 bpd.

In May, the Middle East Economic Survey reported that Iraq preferred to
repair the second terminal rather than reopen a pipeline through Syria
to
boost its UN-controlled oil exports.

Iraq currently uses the Gulf terminal of Mina al-Bakr, west of Mina
al-Amaya, that is also in need of repair, and a pipeline running from
northern fields through Turkey to the Mediterranean.

Under the oil-for-food accord, Iraq, which has been under embargo since
its August 1990 invasion of Kuwait, is authorised to export crude in
return for essential goods.

But a UN sanctions committee has to approve Iraq's contracts with
foreign
suppliers.

Iraq has repeatedly complained of delays in the approval process,
pinning
the blame on the US and British representatives on the committee,
although
the United Nations has accelerated the procedure since March.

According to Rashid, the UN sanctions committee has blocked "447
contracts, worth 294.9 million dollars, for the oil sector" during
phases
IV, V and VI of the programme.

The director of the UN programme for Iraq, in a statement issued before
his visit to Baghdad starting on Tuesday, put the figure at 282 million
dollars.

The sanctions committee has now agreed "on a list of parts and
equipment
which would be approved by a group of (technical) experts" rather than
the
committee itself, as part of the new "procedural improvements",
explained
Benon Sevan.

He said that in the food, health, education and agriculture sectors,
lists
have been drawn up of products which would not need to be submitted to
the
sanctions committee for approval.