Russia lobbied over Iraq sanctions


An Iraqi oil refinery worker checks a pipe: Baghdad says production will resume

UNITED NATIONS, July 3 -- Washington and London are planning to lobby Russia to accept new sanctions on Iraq, after the United Nations failed to approve their proposals.

Diplomatic moves will be stepped up in the coming weeks after the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously on Tuesday for a routine five-month extension of the "oil-for-food" programme.

The U.S. and UK had wanted to change the terms of the 11-year-old sanctions on Baghdad, imposed after Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990.

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But Russia threatened to veto the scheme and so the U.N. voted to continue the existing system, which allows Iraq to export oil and buy civilian goods under U.N. supervision.

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The U.S.-British "smart sanctions" aimed to ease civilian imports to Iraq while tightening controls on smuggling oil and prohibited weapons. Iraq says the current sanctions mean misery for its civilians.

After the plan broke down, Baghdad on Tuesday promised to resume oil production, having stopped the pumps on June 4 in protest at the proposals.

Analysts said the U.S. and UK received encouragement from China and France, but Russia, the other permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, remained defiantly opposed to "smart sanctions."

"We've given ourselves another five months to work through this," U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told Reuters news agency.

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Moscow, which has strong trading links with Baghdad, has suggested suspending sanctions if U.N. arms inspectors are allowed back into Iraq. They left in December 1998. The sanctions could then be reimposed if Baghdad failed to cooperate.

Washington and London will lobby Russia at the G8 summit in Genoa, Italy, later this month, says CNN's European Political Editor Robin Oakley.

There is also likely to be a second meeting between U.S. President George W. Bush and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. The two met for the first time in Slovenia last month.

The failure to impose "smart sanction" was greeted with jubilation in Iraq. The Iraqi military's Al-Qadissya newspaper said: "The smart sanctions resolution was stillborn," adding the delay "is a victory for Iraq's rights."