May 15, 2003	Thursday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 12, 1424

MOSCOW, May 14: The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will not recognize the United States as a representative of Iraq on oil-related matters, OPEC President Abdallah al-Attiyah said here on Wednesday.

OPEC “will not speak with the United States as a representative of Iraq in the area of oil”, Mr Attiyah told a Russian news agency.

“We will wait for the time when we can speak with the national government of Iraq.

“OPEC is not a political organization but a professional organization of oil exporters,” he said.

Mr Attiyah, who is also Qatar’s oil minister and who is on a visit here, said the situation in Iraq would be discussed at the next OPEC ministerial meeting in the Qatari capital Doha on June 11.

Iraq for the past decade has remained an official OPEC member but has exported its oil under United Nations auspices as part of a sanctions regime imposed following its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

DEBT CLAIMS: The United States told the UN Security Council on Wednesday it would not invalidate debt claims of up to 400 billion dollars on Iraq, but wanted a grace period before they could be pressed, a council diplomat said.

The diplomat quoted US sources as saying: “We are trying to ensure that the oil and oil sales are protected for a short period of time in order to get the Iraqi economy jump-started.”

He also quoted the US sources as saying: “That makes no judgment about the validity of the claims.”

Council members met on Wednesday for their first consultations at the ambassadorial level since the United States submitted a draft resolution on Friday to lift economic sanctions against Iraq.

The draft resolution would also phase out the seven-year-old UN oil-for-food programme over four months and in its place establish an Iraqi Assistance Fund for reconstruction.—AFP