UNITED NATIONS, May 22 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - After weeks of internal wrangling, the United Nations Security Council Thursday, May 22, voted to lift crippling sanctions imposed on Iraq in 1990 and put its economy under the broad control of the U.S.-led occupying forces.

The council voted 14-0 to lift the 13-year-old U.N. sanctions immediately, adopting Resolution 1483, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Syria, the only Arab member on the council, boycotted the vote, taken in the presence of U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan.

The resolution asked the U.S. and British occupation forces to help form an Iraqi-led interim administration "until an internationally recognized, representative government is established by the Iraqi people."

It set up a new Development Fund for Iraq under the central bank, supervised by the Anglo-American forces.

Iraq's oil revenues will be deposited in the fund and disbursed at the direction of the occupying powers in consultation with the interim administration.

The resolution also asked Annan to appoint a special representative for Iraq, to contribute to setting up the interim government and to take part in an advisory board auditing the Development Fund.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said the adoption of the new resolution on Iraq is a "very important day in the U.N." as the international community had come back together after a split.

A swift end to the sanctions was also welcomed by aid organisations, but they warned a long road remained to rebuild the social infrastructure of war-ravaged Iraq.

"The lifting of the sanctions is fantastic, it will enable economic activity to start again. It's a psychological boost for the people," said UNICEF's communication officer in Baghdad, Geoffrey Keele.

"But by simply lifting it tomorrow it does not mean that everything becomes better tomorrow. The entire social infrastructure of the country is extremely decayed, it has been decaying for the last 20 years," he admitted.

Syria complained Thursday it failed to show up for the vote because the government in Damascus wanted a little more time to consider the draft resolution.

It was the second time Syria had failed up for a vote since it joined the council for a two-year stint on January 1 last year.

"We requested a few minutes and these minutes were not given to us," deputy ambassador Fayssal Mekdad told reporters.

"We wanted sanctions to be lifted long ago," he said, adding that "Syria participated actively in the negotiations" on the draft.

Mekdad said Syria received the Arabic version of the draft resolution only on Wednesday, May 20.

He noted there was a seven-hour time difference between New York and Damascus and said Wehbe was in Damascus discussing the text with the government when the vote was taken.

Other ambassadors milled around the council chamber, some with mobile phones in their hands, waiting for the Syrians to arrive.

Council president Munir Akram of Pakistan called the meeting to order after U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan entered the chamber.

Annan later declined to comment on Syria's absence, but pointed out to reporters that the council was "master of its own procedures" and said it had the prerogative to vote without all 15 members present.

For his part, U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte told reporters: "My understanding is that Syria could associate itself with the vote by writing a letter to the president of the council."

Asked whether Syria risked any reprisals for boycotting the session, Negroponte said "it would be utterly premature to give you an analysis of the implications of an event that happened in the last hour."

Meanwhile, the new director of the State Oil Marketing Organisation (SOMO), Mohammed al-Juburi, said Thursday Iraq has crude and fuel oil ready to export as soon as the sanctions are lifted.

"We have between eight and nine million barrels in storage in Ceyhan (the Turkish terminal on the Mediterranean)," Juburi told AFP.

The crude was sent to the Turkish terminal before and during the U.S.-led war via a pipeline from Iraq's northern fields.

Juburi said Iraq has no other crude oil ready for export as its current production is not enough to satisfy internal consumption.

On Iraq's post-Saddam oil export policy, Juburi said "our strategic goal is to sell directly to the (foreign) refiners, cutting out the middlemen. This will improve our revenue."

He charged that some sales contracts clinched under the ousted regime were given to trading companies in return for kickbacks that violated the U.N. sanctions.

"These are companies that had nothing to do with oil; they were middlemen," he added.

But Juburi refused to say whether SOMO would cancel any such contracts if already signed by the ousted regime for volumes currently stored in Ceyhan.

"We are still discussing it," he said.

According to Iraqi oil officials, output is now running at a little over 270,000 barrels per day (bpd), less than half the country's domestic demand.

But Juburi said Iraq also had spare fuel oil in its refineries that could be sold to neighbouring countries in exchange for gasoline and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

Iraq's refineries are producing more fuel oil than needed by the power plants but not enough gasoline or LPG.

Power plants are running at 40 percent of pre-war production because of damage done to the transmission grid, according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Half of Iraq's crude is refined into fuel oil, producing storage bottlenecks preventing gasoline and LPG production from being increased.

Under the sanctions regime, Iraq was only allowed to sell crude under the U.N.-supervised "oil-for-food" program, which enabled the government to purchase food, medicine and other basic items for civilian use.