Iraq today accused the United States and Britain of forcing the United Nations to stop the programme that allowed the country's 25 million people to get food and medicine for oil sales.
"We denounce this immoral and inhuman behaviour by the United States and Britain to block the oil-for-food programme," Iraq's trade minister told a news conference.
He said Iraqis had food and medicine stocks to last them "more than six months.
"The Iraqi people do not need American and British humanitarian aid. We do not accept aid from those who are killing our children and women and destroying our infrastructure," he added.
He said UN Secretary General Kofi Annan had submitted to pressure from the United States and Britain.
The trade minister said most of the food and medicine ships and lorries were either at sea or at Iraq's borders when they were blocked from entering as a result of Mr Annan's decision.
He said he had written to the Jordanian authorities urging them to allow trucks carrying food and medicine into Iraq.
He said trucks were delivering additional supplies of food to Iraqis in the southern towns of Nassiriya and Basra, now scenes of fighting between Iraqi militias and US and British troops.
The United Nations said yesterday that Basra, Iraq's second city with a population of two million, faced a humanitarian crisis if water supplies were not swiftly restored.