The UN Security Council has voted unanimously to approve tapping billions of dollars in Iraqi oil revenues to purchase food and medicine in a bid to avert a humanitarian crisis in the war.
The oil-for-food program, which began in December 1996, allows Iraq to sell oil to purchase food, medicine and a host of civilian supplies under UN supervision.
UN Secretary-General Mr Kofi Annan suspended the program and evacuated more than 300 relief workers who monitor the distribution of supplies shortly before US and British forces arrived in Iraq.
The resolution authorises Mr Annan, for the next 45 days, to make "technological and temporary adjustments" to the program, such as reviewing Iraq's contracts to make sure health supplies and foodstuffs had priority.
Mr Annan stressed that the military situation will determine how quickly the United Nations can return its staff to Iraq to begin distributing the assistance. He pulled UN workers out a day before the war began last week.
"As far as resuming the operations on the ground, obviously the military situation on the ground will dictate how quickly we get back" he said today.
The 15 nation Security Council agreed on the wording of the draft resolution after a week of acrimonious negotiations in the council.
Germany's UN Ambassador Mr Gunter Pleuger, who chaired the negotiations, called the programme" the biggest humanitarian assistance program in the history of the UN" and said quick implementation was crucial to preventing a humanitarian disaster.
After the vote, he thanked members for "the spirit of compromise" that led to the resolution being adopted unanimously.
"This is a signal to the people that they are not forgotten," Mr Pleuger said.
The German ambassador said approval of the resolution showed "the unity of purpose" among council members to provide the people of Iraq with desperately needed humanitarian goods.
US Ambassador John Negroponte agreed. "Today's vote will translate into concrete results on the ground," he said. "The people of Iraq have suffered too long" under a regime not of their choosing.
The oil-for-food program has allowed Iraq to sell unlimited quantities of oil provided the money goes mainly to buying food, medicine and other humanitarian goods. The oil proceeds are deposited in a UN-controlled escrow account.
AFP/AP