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New Iraqi Sanctions Outline Circulated At U.N.
WASHINGTON, May 16 (News Agencies) - The United States confirmed Wednesday it has circulated outlines of a proposed new Iraqi sanctions regime to the four other permanent members of the U.N. Security Council.
"We have gotten to ... a more and more concrete stage with those consultations and there are pieces of paper that people are drafting and showing to each other and looking at as to what the necessary steps are and the necessary elements are in carrying out that approach," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
However, he cautioned that the process was not complete and that changes to the proposals were likely.
"We're still in an intermediate stage," Boucher told reporters. "We're in a process of consultation with all the people involved, we don't have a proposal at this point to present."
Boucher declined to detail the specifics in the proposal other than to say generally that Washington was seeking to ease sanctions on civilian goods while strengthening those on military equipment.
U.N. diplomats, who asked not to be identified, said Tuesday the proposals - given to the British, Chinese, French and Russian governments - aimed to remove the most controversial parts of the sanctions imposed on Iraq in August 1990.
In particular, they would rentain the tight control on all imports of military equipment by the government of President Saddam Hussein, but would make it much easier for Iraq to purchase other goods, the diplomats said.
They said the proposals were currently being discussed in the capitals of the permanent council members, rather than at the United Nations.
The current six-month phase of the oil-for-food program, which permits Iraq to sell crude oil and to import basic necessities under U.N. supervision, expires on June 3rd and a council resolution is required to extend it.
The U.N. diplomats said the U.S. ideas were general principles, rather than detailed proposals for reforming sanctions.
The oil-for-food program was overhauled in a long and complex document, Resolution 1284, which was adopted by a deeply divided council on December 17, 1999.
Russia, France and China were among four members which abstained on that occasion and since then have been at odds with Britain and the United States over the impact of the sanctions and their potential for getting Iraq to comply with the council's demands.
Originally imposed to force Iraq to withdraw its occupying forces from Kuwait, the sanctions were later used as a stick to oblige Iraq to eliminate all its weapons of mass destruction.
But the U.N. arms inspectors withdrew in December 1998 on the eve of a bombing campaign by U.S. and British aircraft, and Iraq has said it will not allow them back in, nor have anything to do with Resolution 1284.
In an effort to stave off criticisms that the sanctions were crippling the Iraqi economy and sending infant mortality rates up, the council in 1999 agreed to "fast-track" approval of most import contracts.
In particular, goods which were deemed to have no dual-use potential for military purposes were no longer to be scrutinized by the sanctions committee, but given prior approval.
From now on, the diplomats said, any imports that were not strictly forbidden would be allowed.
As of last Friday, the committee placed a total of $3.7 billion worth of contracts on hold.
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