Iraq will resume oil exports tomorrow night, according to state television in Baghdad. Oil exports were suspended for a month in retaliation for Israel's West Bank offensive.Iraq, which exports around two million barrels of oil a day, halted crude exports on April 8th for at least 30 days in protest at Israel's military assault on the West Bank, which the Palestinians say killed hundreds, and US support for the Jewish state.

But the move has had little impact on world crude prices as other producers in the region, notably OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia as well as hawkish Iran and Libya, refrained from joining a collective embargo. The cabinet decided to "resume oil exports at the end of the one-month period [of suspension], that is after midnight on the night of May 7th to 8th," according to the television report.

The cabinet recalled the decision taken by Iraq's top leadership -- the ruling Revolution Command Council, the Baath Party and the cabinet - on April 8th to halt oil exports for a month "in support of the struggle of the heroic Palestinian people against Zionist-US aggression", it said. The cabinet noted that Arab "masses" had expressed their support for Baghdad's move, which reflected "the conscience of the Arab nation." But "brotherly Arab oil producers did not respond to the Iraqi initiative by taking similar steps such that everyone would succeed" in achieving the objectives of the boycott, the cabinet said, according to the TV report.