The Office of the Iraq Programme, which oversees the UN's humanitarian effort, announced today that the Security Council committee monitoring the sanctions against Baghdad approved a list of 26 housing items under the fast-track system, which is already in place for a number of other sectors.

The fast-track system pre-approves certain items so that they can be processed by the Office without recourse to the committee. Since the system was introduced in March 2000, the Office has processed over $3.17 billion worth of contracts for humanitarian supplies in the food, health, education, agriculture, water and sanitation sectors based on pre-approved lists.

The Office also announced today that last week, Iraq exported 12.3 million barrels of oil through eight loadings, earning an estimated €252 million (euros) in revenue. A portion of Baghdad's petroleum earnings is used to purchase humanitarian supplies under the UN oil-for-food programme.

During that same period, the committee released $32.4 million worth of humanitarian contracts from hold, while it placed holds on $53.5 million new contracts. According to the Office of the Iraq Programme, contracts are generally put on hold because they lack technical specifications or because the goods in question have the potential to be used for purposes other than those stated.