The UN and Baghdad still need to agree on the length and scope of the mission, spokesman Fred Eckhard told the press at UN Headquarters in New York.

Today's development has roots in a resolution adopted by the Security Council when it last extended the oil-for-food programme, which allows Baghdad to sell its petroleum and use a portion of the proceeds to purchase humanitarian relief.

A provision in that resolution asked Secretary-General Kofi Annan to make the necessary arrangements, subject to the approval of the Council, to allow funds up to 600 million euros deposited in an escrow account to be used "for the cost of installation and maintenance, including training services, of the equipment and spare parts for the oil industry." The Government of Iraq was called on to cooperate in the implementation of all such arrangements.

Baghdad communicated its agreement on the team's mission by a letter sent to the Office of the Iraq Programme, which oversees the oil-for-food scheme, Mr. Eckhard said.

Earlier this week, a UN spokesman said that the experts had been ready to travel to Iraq since early this month, but that Baghdad had not as yet officially notified the UN that they could go.