"This delay is merely due to the fact that Iraqi oil ministers will be away next week to attend an OPEC meeting," spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva told reporters in New York.

The six oil experts are now scheduled to arrive in Iraq on 18 March for discussions with the Baghdad authorities on ways to implement the "cash component" for the country's oil industry called for by the Security Council.

The "cash component" involves money for equipment other than supplies, such as labour and parts. By a resolution adopted last December extending the humanitarian oil-for-food programme, the Security Council requested the Secretary-General to make the necessary arrangements, subject to Council approval, to allow funds of up to 600 million euros to be used "for the costs of installation and maintenance, including training services, of the equipment and spare parts for the oil industry." It also called upon the Iraqi Government to cooperate in the implementation of such arrangements.