The approval was conveyed through a letter released at UN Headquarters in New York today from the Executive Director of the UN Office of the Iraq Programme, Benon Sevan, to the country's Ambassador, Mohammed Al-Douri.

Among its allocations, the plan calls for devoting over $1.27 billion to food, $600 million to oil industry spare parts, $387 million to especially vulnerable groups and $300 million to the purchase of medicine and medical supplies. Baghdad earns these funds by selling its petroleum under the UN's oil-for-food programme.

In his letter to the Iraqi Ambassador, Mr. Sevan expresses "grave concern" about the "inordinate delays in contracting and submission of applications for the supplies urgently required to meet the humanitarian needs" and stresses that Iraq must expedite the process.

Mr. Sevan also underscores the need to urgently expedite the targeted nutrition programme for Iraqi children. He notes that during previous phases of the oil-for-food scheme, the targeted nutrition programme "has also suffered from very long delays in contracting the supplies required." He recommends that the Government of Iraq clarify how the "relatively limited resources" allocated in the distribution plan would satisfy Baghdad's objectives in improving the nutritional status of children.

The UN official also expresses regret that "lately the United Nations has been experiencing some serious delays in the issuance of visas" and recommends that the Iraqi Government issue visas to UN staff promptly.

Also released today at the UN was a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on its latest safeguards inspection in Iraq. According to the report, four IAEA experts carried out a physical inventory verification of Iraq's declared nuclear material in late January. "For its part, Iraq provided the necessary cooperation for the inspection team to perform its activities effectively and efficiently," the IAEA Director-General, Mohamed ElBaradei, writes.

The report points out that the IAEA's recent inspection was carried out in accordance with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and "was not intended nor could it serve as a substitute for the Agency's activities under the relevant Security Council resolutions" which call for the elimination of all of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.