18-05-04 Iraq's deputy foreign minister said he will ask the United Nations to allow the country's coming government to fully control oil revenues and that Iraq's debts and war reparations be scrapped or reduced.
"We demand that the coming Iraqi government have full control over natural resources, including oil resources," Hamid al-Bayati told. "The sovereign Iraqi government should be able to control revenues."

Prominent Governing Council member Ahmad Chalabi has said that after June 30, the date when sovereignty is to be handed over to Iraqis, all of Iraq's oil revenues should be under the control of the new interim government. Chalabi also said Iraqis must control development money and security after the United States transfers sovereignty, pointing to tensions between the United States and its Iraqi allies as June 30 nears.
The United States is pushing for a new resolution transferring authority from the Coalition Provisional Authority to the interim Iraqi government which will take power June 30. This includes control of the Development Fund for Iraq, which was set up by the United States and Britain. The fund receives all revenue from the sale of Iraqi oil and assets frozen during Saddam Hussein's regime. The proceeds are supposed to go to reconstruction.

The Americans intend to maintain large military forces in this country and wield considerable influence over Iraqi affairs. The Americans also want to retain authority over the Development Fund for Iraq, established by the Security Council last year to fund reconstruction. The fund receives revenue from the sale of Iraqi oil. Al-Bayati will leave Iraq for talks with the UN Security Council members.
"As for reparations and debts, there are negotiations that they be cancelled or cut down," al-Bayati said. "The (former) regime, and not the Iraqi people, is responsible for war reparations," he added.

Under the UN's oil-for-food program, which began in December 1996 and ended last November, the former Iraqi regime could sell unlimited quantities of oil provided the money went primarily to buy humanitarian goods and pay reparations to victims of the 1991 Gulf War.
Until the US-led invasion of Iraq that toppled Saddam Hussein, the commission overseeing compensations received 25 % of the proceeds from the program. Under the Security Council resolution that went into effect last May, the compensation fund is receiving only 5 % of Iraqi oil sales.
Al-Bayati said the Governing Council discussed the Iraqi demands and other topics to be taken up with the United Nations -- such as sovereignty and future elections.