Charges centred on contracts entered into under the Oil For Food programme between 2000 and 2002.
In 2007, Vitol was heavily fined by a New York court after admitting making payments to the national oil company in Saddam Hussein's Iraq which were outside the UN's oil for food programme.
Mr Sistani argues, however, that the ration cards used for the UN's oil-for-food programme (which have just been reissued, without many hitches) could be used as voters' registration cards.
America is hoping for a decision by June 3rd, when the present oil-for-food programme has to be renewed.
The UN's humanitarian oil-for-food programme would be phased out over six months, not four.
You base your argument on the premise that the oil-for-food programme does not work.
Allegations of fraud and self-dealing surround the Iraqi oil-for-food programme carried out under its name in the 1990s.
The UN administered the oil-for-food programme from 1996 to 2003, when Saddam Hussein's Iraq was under sanctions for having invaded Kuwait.
UN's oil-for-food programme has stopped, along with the customs revenues that have been the two governments' lifeline, an economic crisis looms.
Last Friday, the Security Council voted unanimously to restart the oil-for-food programme under the control of the UN's secretary-general, Kofi Annan, for 45 days.
The oil-for-food programme was blocked by Saddam Hussein for five years.
Even after the oil-for-food programme started, it took another three or four years to replace damaged equipment because much of the gear could not be imported.
The allegations of fraud in the oil-for-food programme are being investigated separately by a commission headed by Paul Volcker, a former head of America's Federal Reserve.
Rather, the oil-for-food programme can be and has been improved.
"Iraq will deal with Resolution 1409 adopted by the Security Council with regard to renewing the oil-for-food programme fro six months, " Iraqi Information Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf said in a statement carried by the official INA news agency.
UN's oil-for-food programme for ordinary Iraqis.
ECONOMIST: But there was still plenty going on that shouldn't have been
This takes place under a humanitarian programme which allows the country to exchange oil revenues for food, medicine and other civilian goods.
The UN has around 150 international observers in Iraq, who travel across the country visiting food warehouses and other installations to check on the implementation of the UN's humanitarian programme, under which Iraq is allowed to sell oil in exchange for food, medicine and other vital supplies.
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