BAGHDAD, April 10 (AFP) The United Nations has kept its humanitarian oil-for-food
 programme in Iraqi Kurdistan under wraps from the Baghdad regime, in violation of the accord,
 the official INA news agency reported Tuesday.

 In a message to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Iraq's Foreign Minister Mohammad Said
 al-Sahhaf said Baghdad had been kept in the dark from "information on the humanitarian
 programme" in northern Iraq.

 Sahhaf blasted the United Nations for "not respecting the terms of the agreement, which state
 that it must consult with Baghdad over all operations undertaken under the programme."

 "The cost of some supply contracts, notably the contract for the import of diesel generators
 signed with a Danish company, are exaggerated," Sahhaf said without elaborating.

 The minister urged Annan to "review the circumstances of the (Danish) contract, supply the
 Iraqi government with copies of the contracts sealed under the programme in the northern
 provinces and implement a complete revision of its expenditure."

 Contracts with Iraq are signed under the UN oil-for-food programme that authorises Baghdad to
 export crude to finance imports of food, medicine and other essential items for its 22-million
 population.

 Northern Iraq has been under the control of Kurdish factions in defiance of Baghdad since the
 aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War, and UN staffers manage the programme there.

 Sahhaf added that the United Nations had made "disproportionate requests for entry visas".

 "Visas were requested for carpenters and switchboard operators, when Iraqis could have been
 employed."

 Sahhaf warned in January that Iraq could take necessary measures against international
 staffers in northern Iraq whose "behaviour and actions ... constitute a flagrant violation of the UN
 charter and rules on its activities in Iraq."

 The oil-for-food program was introduced in 1996 to ease conditions for the Iraqi people suffering
 from the international embargo imposed on Baghdad following its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
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The Kurdistan Observer
www.kurdistanobserver.com