Iraq: Security Council consults on oil-for-food, inspection panel's report

There is a general view in the Security Council that all efforts should be made to conclude negotiations on a draft resolution on the United Nations humanitarian oil-for-food programme by the end of the month, the current President of the 15-member UN body said today.

Ambassador Anwarul Karim Chowdhury, the Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the UN, told the press that during today's closed consultations the Council had been briefed on the status of discussions held at the level of experts, "who have been examining the various concepts which are included in the draft earlier proposed by the United Kingdom and the recent draft by France."

"It is possible that by the middle of next week a text will emerge based on the two existing drafts," Ambassador Chowdhury said, adding that "hopefully then concrete negotiations on the text will start." He noted that there was a general agreement on the need to exert every effort to wrap up the negotiations by the end of June "within the time-frame of the one-month rollover."

During its consultations today, the Security Council considered another matter related to Iraq -- the fifth quarterly report of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), which had been issued a week ago.

Hans Blix, UNMOVIC Executive Chairman, who briefed the Council this morning, told the press afterwards that the discussions had been "very friendly, constructive and interesting." He described the Commission's preparedness for going into Iraq as "great," with about 180 people trained as inspectors, and adequate staff at UN Headquarters to back up and plan all the operations.