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The United Nations office overseeing the humanitarian Oil-for-Food program said Tuesday that it had so far identified 395 million US dollars worth of supplies that are "shippable" within the 45-day timelines adopted last month by the Security Council.
The Office of the Iraq Program (OIP) said it continued to race against the clock, together with six UN agencies and organizations, to identify priority items that can be extracted from the pipeline and shipped by May 12 as required by resolution 1472.
The office said most of the priority goods confirmed with 137 suppliers were in the food, agriculture and health sectors.
It said that most of the supplies were already in transit at the onset of the war and would be routed to strategic locations in Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Kuwait and Iran for transshipment to Iraq.
The Oil-for-Food program, which allowed Iraq to use part of its oil revenues to buy humanitarian supplies, was temporarily halted on March 17 after the withdrawal of all UN staff from Iraq on the eve of hostilities.
The Security Council adopted a new resolution on March 28 giving Secretary-General Kofi Annan more authority to administer the operation for the next 45 days, including prioritizing deliveries.
(Xinhua News Agency April 16, 2003)
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