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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: maceng2 who wrote (38888)	8/20/2002 11:17:17 AM
From: maceng2	Respond to of 281500

Australia and Iraq agree wheat export deal By Virginia Marsh in Sydney Published: August 20 2002 9:34 \| Last Updated: August 20 2002 9:34 The Australian Wheat Board has brokered a deal with the authorities in Baghdad that will allow Australia to resume full wheat exports to Iraq following a month-long stand-off between the two countries. The breakthrough, announced on Tuesday, follows Iraq's threat a month ago to halve its imports of Australian wheat, worth A$800m (US$433m) in protest against statements by senior Australian politicians that they would support possible pre-emptive US action against Saddam Hussein's regime. Andrew Lindberg, AWB's managing director, said that the Iraqi minister of trade had confirmed in a formal agreement that Iraq would resume all its Australian wheat imports for 2003 and beyond to their normal level of 2m tonnes a year. In addition, current contracts for 2002 could proceed, with no reduction in price. However, Mr Lindberg, who returned to Australia on Tuesday morning after leading a week-long delegation to Baghdad, said the agreement was conditional on Canberra promoting diplomatic solutions to the current situation in Iraq. "Recently the signals out of Canberra have been encouraging and I urge bothsides of parliament to continue to actively promote peaceful and diplomatic solutions," Mr Lindberg said, adding that he would be meeting with the relevant Australian ministers later this week. "We said we would convey [Iraq's] concerns directly to our government and we will do that." The government and in particular, Alexander Downer, the foreign minister, have been criticised both by opposition parties and by local commentators for appearing to suggest that a US-led action against Iraq was inevitable and for supporting such an action. When they threatened to cut wheat imports last month, the Iraqi authorities made it clear the move was in direct response to such comments. However, John Howard, prime minister, has this week sought to diffuse the controversy, saying Canberra would only consider joining any US-led action against Iraq if it were in Australia's national interest. Iraq is one of Australia's top two wheat markets while Australia is Iraq's single biggest wheat supplier. It imported almost 2.4m tonnes of Australian wheat in 2000-01 under the United Nation's oil-for-food programme. AWB, Australia's national wheat marketing organisation, said it had already shipped about 1.3m tonnes of wheat to Iraq this year and expected to ship a further 500,000 tonnes, for a total of 1.8m tonnes for 2002. Exports from Australia, usually the world's third largest wheat exporter after the US and Canada, are being constrained by a severe drought. This year's wheat harvest is expected to reach only some 18m tonnes, down from nearly 24m tonnes last year, of which 16.8m was exported news.ft.com

To: maceng2 who wrote (38888)	8/20/2002 11:23:57 AM
From: maceng2	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 281500

Military says missile shot down helicopter in Chechnya Interfax. Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2002, 6:36 PM Moscow Time KHANKALA. Aug 20 (Interfax) - Evidence has been found to confirm the theory that Monday's crash of a military helicopter in Chechnya, which killed more than 100 troops, was the result of a missile attack from the ground, a military source said on Tuesday. "An investigating group found the weapon of the crime, a Strela anti-aircraft missile launcher, which had been used," a source in the headquarters of the Combined Federal Forces in the North Caucasus told Interfax themoscowtimes.com (This might be the weapon here...pb) fas.org