71.   France, which often backs Iraq in the sanctions committee, said it was not opposed to the Iraqi request, but said the amount was too high.

72.   German Ambassador Antonius Eitel, chairman of the sanctions committee on Iraq, refused to identify the state.

73.   Hamdoon said Monday he thought oil could begin flowing in December, pending completion of repairs on an oil pipeline through Turkey and approval by the sanctions committee.

74.   Governments must submit to the sanctions committee the names of companies approved to buy Iraqi oil before the companies can bid on contracts, the draft said.

75.   He also persuaded President Bashar Assad of Syria to let the U.N. sanctions committee oversee a pipeline that runs from Iraqi oil fields to the Mediterranean Sea through Syria.

76.   He commended Clinton administration officials for helping ferry the assistance through the U.N. sanctions committee, which must approve any flights into the country.

77.   He said he was confident that the sanctions committee would remove his clients from the list if the United States agreed.

78.   He said that the U.N. sanctions committee had not approved any contracts put forward by Russian firms.

79.   However, all items purchased must be approved by a sanctions committee, which Iraq says is manipulated by the United States to hold up contracts.

80.   However, there was no immediate word on whether the plane had received clearance from the United Nations sanctions committee to land in Iraq.