Iraq on Tuesday presented the United Nations its purchase plan for the 11th phase of the UN oil-for-food program, the official Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported.
An official in Iraq's UN mission submitted the plan in a letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the report said, without elaborating.
Annan in October criticized Iraq for not spending enough of its oil revenues on food and making "little or no provision" for the specific needs of vulnerable groups such as female-headed households with young children.
The UN oil-for-food program, launched in 1996, allows Iraq to sell oil and use part of the revenues to buy food, medicine and other essentials for its 22 million people to offset the impact of the UN embargo imposed on Iraq for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
At the end of last month, UN Security Council renewed the program for another six months to May 30, 2002.
The UN controls the proceeds from Iraq's oil sales and puts them into an escrow account to pay for the goods Iraq orders within the framework of the UN oil-for-food program.
( December 26, 2001)
