11.   The UN has said the sanctions will end only when weapons inspectors are satisfied that the country no longer has chemical or biological weapons.

12.   The United States insists that sanctions cannot end until the inspectors certify that Iraq is rid of weapons of mass destruction.

13.   Already, industrialists from many countries are making regular pilgrimages to Baghdad to negotiate provisional contracts in the expectation that sanctions will end soon.

14.   But there is no indication when the sanctions will end.

15.   However, Repsol spokeswoman Carolina Alvero said it was too early to tell when sanctions would end.

16.   Iraq has been insisting that the sanctions should end, claiming it has complied with all Security Council resolutions on its weapons programs.

17.   Ivri said Iraq also retained dangerous potential and could rebuild its program to pre-Gulf War levels if oil flowed and sanctions ended.

18.   Other countries argue sanctions should end once weapons systems are shown to be dismantled.

19.   Russia, its economy in chaos, desperately needs the cash and also hopes for big new contracts with Iraq when sanctions end.

20.   The sanctions ended in October, when President Jean-Bertrand Aristide returned to Haiti.