11.   Beijing has vowed to meet U.S. sanctions with excessive import duties on everything from beef to cars and to cancel contract talks.

12.   British Prime Minister Tony Blair has been a proponent of sanctions along with the leaders of Spain and Italy.

13.   Earlier this month, the Organization of African Unity requested that member states ignore sanctions with humanitarian or religious implications and those relating to official OAU business.

14.   For years, the council routinely renewed those sanctions with little debate.

15.   He said EU Trade Commissioner Sir Leon Brittan would discuss the sanctions with Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien during a visit to Canada next week.

16.   House-Senate bargainers seemed near resolution of differences over lifting some trade sanctions with Cuba and whether to change federal milk pricing rules.

17.   Iraq has long accused Kuwait of trying to prolong the sanctions along with the United States and Britain.

18.   Japan on Wednesday filed a complaint against the United States over the threatened sanctions with the newly established World Trade Organization in Geneva.

19.   Japanese officials are warning they might retaliate against proposed U.S. sanctions with punitive measures of their own.

20.   Japan has already filed a complaint about the threatened sanctions with the Geneva-based global trade watchdog, the World Trade Organization.