WASHINGTON, Oct 15 (Reuters) - Secretary of State Madeleine Albright,
whose
job it is to oversee U.S. foreign policy, is apparently unaware how
important
Iraq's crude oil is to United States.

Albright said on Sunday that the United States did not purchase oil
from
Iraq. ``I do not believe so. I don't think so,'' she said on the ABC
news
programme ``This Week'' when asked if the U.S. market used Iraqi oil.

She was off by 124.6 million barrels.

That is how much oil the United States imported from Iraq during the
first
seven months of this year, according to the latest data from the Energy
Department.

Iraq was the sixth-biggest supplier of oil to the United States during
the
period, shipping an average of 585,000 barrels per day. A barrel holds
42
gallons (160 litres) of oil.

Iraq shipped more oil than Kuwait, which a U.S.-led international
military
force liberated from an invading Iraqi army a decade ago. Kuwait
exported
217,000 bpd of crude to the United States during the seven-month
period.
Saudi Arabia was the biggest U.S. oil supplier, shipping 1.442 million
bpd.

Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush has criticised the
Clinton
administration's energy policy as a threat to U.S. national security.
He
points out that the United States depends on foreign countries for more
than

half its oil supplies.

While Iraq is bound by strict U.N. economic sanctions imposed after the
Gulf

War, it is allowed to sell oil under a special U.N.-run programme to
get
money for buying food, medicine and other humanitarian goods.

14:13 10-15-00