Back to the WORLD NEWS

There have been angry protests in Ivory Coast after President Laurent Gbagbo accepted a deal in Paris to end a four-month civil war with rebels.

PEACE DEAL

President Gbagbo remains in power Coalition interim government named Non-partisan prime minister appointed Government prepares fresh elections

Excerpts from the peace plan

Up to 5,000 pro-government youths took to the streets in the main city of Abidjan, accusing the French of imposing the agreement on its former colony.

A French school in the city was reportedly ransacked, while protestors targeted cars which they suspected were carrying French nationals.

The BBC's Tom McKinley in Abidjan says that the demonstrations are being carried out all over the city and that there has been some sporadic gunfire.

There were similar demonstrations by Ivorians living in Paris.

Mr Gbagbo had been said to be reluctant to accept the agreement - which many in Ivory Coast say includes too many concessions to the rebels.

Gbagbo 'reluctant'

However on Saturday, Mr Gbagbo - who will lose significant powers to a national unity government - said he accepted the deal.

The rebels will get key portfolios in the new cabinet

Mr Gbagbo named former Prime Minister Seydou Diarra as a new head of government.

The main rebel group, the Popular Movement of Ivory Coast (MPCI), said it would hold the defence and interior ministry portfolios in the new administration.

The announcement of a deal came at a summit of 10 African leaders in Paris called to give international legitimacy to the peace deal.

Mr Gbagbo said the new coalition government would be formed in the coming days and would have "two essential objectives: to lift Ivory Coast out of war and to bring back prosperity".

African pressure

Commenting on the deal, South African President Thabo Mbeki told the BBC: "It was a good result and we hope it will mean peace".

President Taylor of Liberia, on Ivory Coast's western border, said he was "very pleased," and President John Kufuor of Ghana, to the east, said: "It's all very positive and has everyone's support".

But French President Jacques Chirac added a note of caution, saying "there still remains a lot to do".

He stressed that all the parties "must respect the rules of the game that they have accepted".

French officials say that under the agreement, the new cabinet will include nine ministers - divided between supporters of the president, opposition parties and the rebel movements.

The government is to pave the way for new elections at an unspecified date. The rebels will be forced to give up their arms.

The plan also urges the creation of an international surveillance committee to ensure the accord is respected.

The BBC's Paul Welsh in Paris says this is the best chance of peace that there has been in Ivory Coast since the war began and it leaves the president in place.

Our correspondent says West African leaders piled on the pressure to try to get Mr Gbagbo to accept the idea and end the war which has threatened to drag in neighbouring states.

The agreement followed nine days of talks between the main Ivorian political parties and the country's three rebel groups.

United Nations inspectors in Iraq say two scientists they wanted to interview about weapons of mass destruction have rejected private meetings.

"Two individuals did not agree to it without the presence of a witness," a UN statement said.

I could rattle off at least a dozen [names of states which would back war on Iraq]... and I think that there will be more Colin Powell

A third scientist visited a Baghdad hotel housing inspectors on Saturday but left after 90 minutes without speaking to reporters.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell said America would "patiently" assess the first full report by the UN inspectors due on Monday.

But he added that Washington could count on support from "at least a dozen" governments if it decided to launch a military strike without a fresh UN Security Council resolution.

He was speaking after arriving in Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum, where he is due to deliver a speech on Sunday.

The US administration has accused Saddam Hussein's regime of threatening scientists who try to give information to the inspectors.

Hundreds of anti-war protesters have gathered in Davos while hundreds more are said to have given up trying to reach the mountain town in the face of stiff security measures.

Police used water cannon and tear gas to drive back demonstrators hoping to catch trains to the resort. the protesters fought back with snowballs.

The BBC's Emma Jane Kirby reports that a few protestors were dressed in monkey suits and wore masks of George Bush and some burnt American flags.

Appeal for time

European Union leaders in Davos have appealed for UN inspectors to be given more time.

KEY DATES

27 Jan - First full report on inspections presented to UN 29 Jan - UN discusses report 31 Jan - Bush meets Blair 15 Feb - Anti-war protests across Europe 27 Mar - Blix submits new report to UN

Next steps in full

"Obviously there is a consensus that we should give them the necessary time if they ask," said Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency.

On Monday, the UN Security Council will hear the first formal report on the situation in Iraq from the chief UN weapons inspector, Hans Blix. His team has been searching sites in the country for weapons of mass destruction.

Mr Powell made it clear the Bush administration would not rush to make a decision after Monday's report.

"We certainly will patiently examine the report, consult with our friends and allies," he said.

The inspectors say they need several months to look for the remaining weapons of mass destruction the US says Iraq possesses.

Air assault

At Davos Mr Powell met the Turkish Prime Minister, Abdullah Gul, who said no decision had been made on whether to allow the US to use Turkish bases in any attack on Iraq.

According to America's CBS news, US military planners are preparing devastating air strikes which would leave Iraqi soldiers unable or unwilling to fight.

On the first day of the planned operation US forces would launch up to 400 cruise missiles at Iraqi targets - more than the number fired during the entire 1991 Gulf War, it reported.

The speaker of the Iraqi parliament, Saadoun Hammadi, said on Saturday that his country would use "every method to inflict damage and casualties" against invaders.

Speaking on a visit to India, he did not elaborate.

Turkmenistan's President Saparmurat Niyazov has said 46 people have been convicted of trying to assassinate him late last year.

A former foreign minister was jailed for life

President Niyazov gave no details of the sentences handed down in the closed trial, which followed weeks of sweeping arrests and televised confessions of the accused.

"The trial is over. Forty-six people have been convicted. There were another five or 10 people involved, but we're not going to keep on looking for them now," he told national television.

Earlier this month, the international community denounced the mass arrests of families of the suspects, with Europe's security organisation, the OSCE, accusing Turkmenistan's state media of using "Stalinist" methods against the accused.

The government says that President Niyazov's motorcade came under fire from machine guns during the attack on 25 November last year.

The president was not harmed.

Some opponents of President Niyazov have claimed that the assassination attempt may have been staged as an excuse to crack down on the opposition.

Ministers promoted

The suspects included a former parliamentary speaker and several top officials.

Mr Niyazov does not tolerate opposition

Boris Shikhmuradov, the former foreign minister and the opposition leader blamed for masterminding the attack, was earlier jailed for life without the right for parole, state media reported.

More than a dozen foreigners were also reported to have been detained, but President Niyazov has promised to extradite them.

The president gave special awards to the prosecutor general for solving the coup conspiracy.

The ministers of the interior and state security were promoted to the rank of major-generals, and dozens of police received awards for heroism.

Mr Niyazov has also ordered a book to be published to preserve the memory of the plot, Reuters news agency reported.

Personality cult

Mr Niyazov, 62, has been in power since before independence from the USSR in 1991 and styles himself the Father of all Turkmen.

He quickly developed a cult of personality surrounding himself, suppressing legitimate political opposition.

He has spent vast sums of money on lavish palaces and statues of himself, despite the country's increasing poverty.

Much of the cash for such grandiose projects is thought to stem from deals involving Turkmenistan's rich oil and gas reserves.

Streets and towns have been given the president's name.

A special parliamentary decree has renamed the months of the year and days of the week after the president, his mother and Turkmen folklore heroes.

By Jonathan Kent BBC correspondent in Kuala Lumpur

Malaysian police have arrested two men, including a member of the country's military, on suspicion of belonging to a militant Islamic group linked to al-Qaeda.

The two are said to be members of a cell that helped recruit for paramilitary training in the southern Philippines.

Police have released few details about the arrests but say they expect to make more.

The air force official's rank and role have not been made public.

Logistical support

Both men are said to have been part of a militant cell based in the east Malaysian state of Sabah, on the island of Borneo.

Four alleged members of the same cell were seized last month.

Together they are believed to have provided accommodation and transport for fellow members of the Islamic militant network known as Jemaah Islamiah.

Sabah is thought to be a staging post for militants travelling to the nearby southern Philippines, where many receive paramilitary training.

Ten days ago Indonesian police arrested two alleged members of Jemaah Islamiyah described as key suspects in the Bali bombing.

Both were seized while apparently planning to flee from Indonesian Borneo into Sabah.

11 September links

Malaysian police have arrested more than 70 people accused of belonging to the same militant network in the last 18 months.

Only one other is known to have links to the country's armed forces.

Yazid Sufaat, a former army captain, was questioned by the FBI after it emerged that his flat was used for a meeting by two of the 11 September hijackers.

Mr Yazid also met with Zacarias Moussaoui, who faces charges in the United States in connection with the attacks on New York and Washington.

All those arrested are being held under Malaysia's tough Internal Security Act, which allows for indefinite detention without charge or trial.

By Michael Bristow In Taipei

Sixteen flights operated by Taiwanese airlines between Shanghai and Taipei over Chinese New Year are being hailed as a breakthrough in relations between China and Taiwan.

The decision is a friendly gesture that shows we are ready to open direct flights. It is a step forward Chuang Suo-hang, Taiwan cabinet spokesman

The charter flights will take Taiwanese businessmen who work on the mainland home to Taiwan to celebrate Lunar New Year, which falls on 1 February, and then take them back again when the holiday is over.

The flights are significant because it will be the first time since 1949 that Taiwanese airlines have been allowed to fly to China.

Political disagreements between Beijing and Taipei mean there are currently no direct links, including flights, between the two sides.

Many see these New Year semi-direct flights, which still have to make a stop-off in either Hong Kong or Macau, as a step towards that goal.

Costly exercise

There is certainly no shortage of Taiwanese people who would like to see direct flights between China and Taiwan, including long-suffering businessmen who regularly make the trip to the mainland.

The lack of direct flights means anyone travelling between Taiwan and China has first to stop off at a third place, usually Hong Kong or Macau.

In some cases this leads to bizarre situations in which aircraft touch down for just a few minutes.

While passengers remain on board, flight numbers are changed before the planes continue on their way.

All this means journeys cost more and take longer. It currently takes at least five hours to get from Taipei to Shanghai, although a direct flight could make the trip in under two hours.

Michael Huang, a director at Taiwanese computer firm Acer Inc, said it takes him about 12 hours to get from Taipei to his firm's China office in Beijing.

After a long day, much of it spent waiting around airport terminals, all he wants to do when he arrives in the Chinese capital is check into his hotel and rest.

"It is very time consuming, but we do not have any choice," said the 40-year-old, who said he would love to be able to fly direct from Taipei to Beijing.

Eager customers

Businessmen are not the only ones who would like to see direct flights between China and Taiwan. Travel agents and airlines would also welcome them.

Taiwanese people currently make about three million trips a year to China, a figure that would surely increase if there were direct flights.

There are those in Taiwan who have criticised these New Year flights as little more than a gimmick

The key route would be between Taipei and Shanghai, currently home to hundreds of thousands of Taiwanese businessmen and their families.

Far East Air Transport Corp, which will operate six of the 16 New Year flights, is just one Taiwanese airline keen to show its interest in direct links.

Talking about the New Year flights, a company spokeswoman said: "First of all, we want to provide a service to Taiwanese businessmen, but it also shows we have the capability to fly directly to Shanghai."

Taiwan government officials say they too would like to see direct links, including trade, transport and postal connections, between the two sides.

'Friendly gesture'

Cabinet spokesman Chuang Suo-hang said the government allowed these semi-direct flights to make it easier for Taiwanese businessmen to return home for Chinese New Year, but also as a signal to China.

"The decision is a friendly gesture that shows we are ready to open direct flights. It is a step forward," he said.

But a lot would need to happen before direct flights were allowed.

There is deep distrust on both sides, the root of which is the disagreement over whether Taiwan is a part of China, as Beijing thinks, or a separate entity, as Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian believes.

Deadlock

Cabinet spokesman Chuang said for direct flights to become a reality there would first need to be government-to-government talks with no preconditions.

He said these were needed in order to work out such things as security issues.

And therein lies the difficulty, because China refuses to hold official talks with Taiwan unless the island accepts there is just one China.

The result is stalemate. There are even those in Taiwan who have criticised these New Year flights as little more than a gimmick.

At about US$450 each, seats on the special flights cost about the same as a normal flight between Taipei and Shanghai. And, they still have to call off at a third place and so take just as long.

Despite this though, the New Year flights, which begin on Sunday, are a positive step forward in relations between China and Taiwan.

But until one or both sides makes a grand gesture, or until their differences can be fudged to get talks going, permanent direct flights will remain as elusive as ever.

The Palestinian economy will be hit hard if Israel demolishes more West Bank shops and small businesses, the World Bank has warned.

On Tuesday Israeli bulldozers flattened about 60 shops and small businesses in the village of Nazlat Issa near Tulkarm.

There is also the concern that this will be a precursor to other such acts on a broader basis Nigel Roberts World Bank

Demolition orders for another 50 shops have also been issued, according to Palestinian and Israeli officials.

"There will be a very serious impact on the village and surrounding area," Nigel Roberts, director of the World Bank in Gaza and the West Bank, told BBC News Online.

"There is also the concern that this will be a precursor to other such acts on a broader basis."

Collective punishment?

The demolition wrecked businesses belonging to a vibrant market of 170 shops which attract shoppers from both the West Bank and Israel.

"It acted as a significant local economic magnet," said the World Bank's Mr Roberts, adding that access to agricultural areas has also been restricted.

Villagers blame the demolition on the security fence

Israeli officials said the shops had been demolished because they were operating illegally without permits.

"We've given out a total of 81 [demolition] notices, including the 28 already carried out," said Talia Somech from the Israeli administration in the West Bank.

However, the Palestinians have accused the occupying Israeli army of destroying their economy as a collective punishment for the intifada.

Villagers also say the bulldozers are clearing the way for the construction of a "security fence" to protect Israel from suicide bombers.

The World Bank's Mr Roberts did not want to speculate on the Israelis' motivation, saying he was more concerned with the potential economic impact.

But he added: "It seems to me that there is a connection between the fence and this community."

Damage

In December, Mr Roberts and his team visited the area because it had already suffered economically from the building of the fence.

DAMAGE (Sept 00 to June 01)

Infrastructure: $13.9m Agriculture: $112.7m Public buildings: $13.3m Private buildings: $27.7m Source: World Bank

"We saw it as a preview, what was occurring as a result of the construction.

"But it is hard to extrapolate the impact without more work, particularly if this policy is extended along the line of the fence."

The World Bank calculates that damage to Palestinian infrastructure, agriculture and buildings between September 2000 and June 2001 has amounted to $168m (£104m).

"Damage has continued to occur almost daily since, especially to security-related public buildings, private homes, and agriculture," it added in a report.

'Traumatic'

Next month the World Bank will publish an update about the economic impact on the Palestinian territories since the intifada of September 2000.

In the past two years, personal incomes have halved in the Palestinian territories, while poverty has increased from 20% of the population to 60%, said Mr Roberts.

Meanwhile, Palestinian unemployment has risen from 10% to more than 50%.

"It has been very traumatic in the social sense," he said.

He is also concerned that these sorts of actions by the Israelis will "scarcely bode well for any reconciliation" between the two sides.

Italy's National Security Committee is reviewing security at sensitive sites, amid fears that five Moroccans arrested this week were planning terrorist attacks.

The men, detained for illegal possession of explosives, are suspected of having links to extremist groups elsewhere in Europe.

Police found maps with Nato bases in northern Italy ringed and a plan of central London during the arrests south of Venice.

Italian authorities are now considering how best to secure their military sites, as well as prominent historical sites such as the leaning tower of Pisa.

The arrest of the five suspects was approved by the investigating judge and they have now been remanded in custody, say reports.

Unsophisticated

The BBC's security correspondent, Frank Gardner, says if the men had been plotting an attack, it is more likely that it would have taken place in Italy than in London.

The map of central London did not have any targets marked but other maps showed a Nato base in Verona where targets had been ringed.

Officers found a kilogram (2.2 lb) of explosives in the building where the men were staying in the northern city of Rovigo, 50 kilometres (30 miles) south-west of Venice.

Our correspondent says the powerful C4 explosive discovered is the same type as that used in the Bali bombing in October and could only be accessed through military sources.

But, he says, if the men were indeed planning any attack, it would not be particularly sophisticated and certainly nothing on the level of the 11 September operation.

Routine search

Police said they found the explosives during a routine search for illegal immigrants in an abandoned building where the men were squatting.

The men lived in an abandoned building

Reports say the flat was scattered with beer cans and the explosives were found in a sock under a pile of laundry.

A religious leader of Rovigo's Muslim community was among those arrested, the Associated Press news agency quoted a police source as saying.

In court on Friday, Judge Rosanna Oggioni confirmed that the men were charged with possession of explosives, according to Italian newspaper La Repubblica.

She ordered that they be remanded in custody, on the grounds that they could attempt the crime again, tamper with evidence or abscond.

Sofia Tiengo, a lawyer for two of the suspects, said her clients denied the allegations.

If found guilty, the men face up to eight years in prison.

US praise

The US attorney general, who met Italian Justice Minister Roberto Castelli on Thursday, welcomed the latest development.

Mr Ashcroft said the arrests were "tangible evidence that Italy takes terrorism seriously and fights it aggressively".

Mr Castelli said Italy was "engaged in the front line, and Italy has shown concrete results".

Dozens of people have been arrested in Italy in recent months as part of a crackdown on Islamic terror cells operating in the country.

Last October, police arrested three Egyptians in Anzio, south of Rome, after they said they found explosives and a map of a US military cemetery in the men's apartment.

The Belgian army is on alert after reports that an oil slick from a sunken cargo ship in the English Channel may wash up on its beaches within hours.

Hundreds of oil-covered birds have been washed ashore over the past two days.

We have to keep the sludge out Paul Breyne provincial governor

The country has ordered 120 military personnel to be ready to tackle the slick which is reported to be 150 metres (492 feet) wide and four kilometres (2.5 miles) long.

It is expected to hit between Zeebrugge and Ostend.

"We need to protect our nature reserves - we have to keep the sludge out," Paul Breyne, governor of West Flanders Province, said as he drafted plans for floating buffers along the 66-km (40-mile) coast.

Bad weather has prevented two Belgian anti-pollution ships sent to the area where the Tricolor sank from pumping the oil out of the water.

One has reportedly already returned to port.

French officials say the slick formed when a salvage tug hit a fuel tank on the partially submerged Tricolor on Wednesday.

Shipping hazard

14 Dec: Tricolor and Kariba collide in heavy fog, sinking the former 15 Dec: cargo ship NSD Provider comes within 500 m of wreck 16 Dec: freighter Nicola runs into swamped ship 1 Jan: so too does fuel tanker Vicky

The Tricolor has been a shipping hazard since it collided with another vessel and sank on 14 December.

It was carrying 2,000 tonnes of fuel when it went over on its side with more than 2,850 new BMW, Volvo and Saab cars.

The head of the regional bird protection agency, Jan Rodts, said that the seabirds washed up represented only a fraction of the wildlife damaged.

"Ten percent washes ashore, 90% dies at sea," he said.

"This is only the tip of the iceberg."

Paris pomp

Statuesque

Cutting a dash

Davos division

Dutch double

Polluted promenade

Warmth around the corner

People who are over-aggressive or excessively anxious may be missing a gene, say scientists who conducted experiments on mice.

The gene, called PET-1, was removed from specially-bred mice by scientists at Case Western Reserve University in the US.

They found that the mice had heightened levels of both anxiety and aggression - when the mice were given a "territory", their response time to attack an intruder was significantly lower than a normal wild mouse, and they tended to launch an attack more often.

Although mice are already fairly nervous creatures, when the genetically-modified animals were placed in a test chamber with a choice between an "unprotected" open space and "safe" enclosed space, they tended to stay in the latter for longer periods than normal mice.

This is the first gene shown to impact adult emotional behaviour Dr Evan Deneris, Case Western Reserve University

This, said the testers, was a clear sign that the mice were suffering more anxiety.

Brain cell

Dr Evan Deneris, who led the study, said: "The behaviour of the PET-1 knockout mice is strikingly reminiscent of some human psychiatric disorders that are characterised by heightened anxiety and violence."

The gene appears to be important in the development of a certain kind of brain cell in the foetus.

The cells produce a chemical called serotonin, which is known to be important in humans for the control of mood.

People who do not make enough serotonin can suffer from mood disorders such as depression and anxiety. Popular drugs such as Prozac work by increasing the amount of serotonin available to the brain.

Mice lacking PET-1 did not produce enough serotonin cells, and the ones they did make were defective.

Dr Deneris said: "We have now shown that PET-1 is required specifically for foetal development of serotonin neurons. This is the first gene shown to impact adult emotional behaviour through specific control of foetal serotonin neuron development."

While humans and mice share many genetic characteristics, and PET-1 is present in the human genome, it remains to be discovered whether the gene has a similar role.

Early diagnosis

However, Dr Deneris believes that, if this proves to be the case, tests could be developed to spot people who are at risk before their symptoms become severe.

Professor Peter McGuffin, from the Institute of Psychiatry in London said that it was hard to conceive that a gene test would be able to outperform the doctor's old fashioned skill in diagnosing psychiatric disorders.

However, he said that a gene test could predict who would respond to a particular drug and who would not.

He told BBC News Online: "Of course, what you observe in a mouse is quite different from what you observe in a clinic.

"What is unusual here is that anxiety and aggression don't normally go together in human patients - so the gene they have knocked out may just have thrown a spanner in the works rather than relate specifically to anxiety or aggression."

Another researcher, Dr Marianne van den Bree, a senior lecturer at the University of Wales in Cardiff, told BBC News Online: "We currently think that the balance between genes and environment in problems like aggression is about 50/50.

"There are likely to be many different genes involved which have an influence on this, so developing a test will be very difficult."

The latest study was published in the journal Neuron.

Saudi security forces are hunting for four gunmen who killed a Kuwaiti man and wounded three Saudis during a police check in the capital Riyadh.

The Saudi interior ministry said the shooting happened on Friday night at an apartment block in Riyadh's Al-Masyaf neighbourhood.

The leader of the main Saudi Islamic opposition movement in London described the incident as a police raid on a group of "pro-jihad (holy war)" men.

An interior ministry statement carried by the official Saudi news agency SPA said police came under fire when they went to check the identities of several suspects at the complex, and two officers were wounded.

One policeman was hit in the thigh, another in the foot, preventing them from pursuing the gunmen.

As the gunmen fled the apartment they also shot a Kuwaiti national who had left his apartment to see what was going on, the statement said.

Saudi Arabia handed over a suspected gunman to Kuwait

A Saudi man standing outside his home near the complex was also lightly wounded in the shooting, it added.

The shooting happened a day after Saudi Arabia extradited a self-confessed Kuwaiti supporter of the al-Qaeda network, who admitted ambushing two Americans near the main US army base in Kuwait.

One American was killed, the other seriously wounded in the incident.

Crackdown

Sa'd al-Faqih, head of the London-based opposition Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia (Mira), said the Saudi police raid on Friday targeted suspected al-Qaeda members.

In an interview with Qatari-based al-Jazeera television, he claimed that Saudi police morale had "collapsed" since "pro-jihad men" had received a fatwa, or religious decree, "ordering them not to surrender or be taken prisoner".

Bin Laden: Some Saudis like his anti-US rhetoric

Their religious leaders had told them "to use weapons only if the police attack them," Mr al-Faqih said.

All but four of the 19 men who carried out the 11 September suicide attacks in the United States are believed to have been Saudis.

Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden - accused of masterminding the attacks - was born in Saudi Arabia.

Commenting on the Riyadh shooting, the Saudi Deputy Interior Minister, Prince Ahmad bin Abdul Aziz, said the authorities were still holding about 200 people suspected of links with al-Qaeda.

But he told the newspaper Al-Riyadh that the authorities had not yet identified the four gunmen - believed to be Saudis.

With the world's second largest oil reserves, Iraq has vast potential to help feed the global thirst for oil.

But after two decades of war and sanctions, the industry desperately needs funds only foreign investors can offer.

War sceptics have questioned whether oil is a motivating factor for the world's most powerful nations - especially the United States - as they thrash out the case for military action.

Vast potential

In its oil-producing heyday in the late 1970s, Iraq was producing 3.5 million barrels a day.

Industry analysts estimate that with large-scale investment in the country's rusting industrial infrastructure, this could be upped to six million.

This would make Iraq the fourth largest producer, behind Saudi Arabia (8.8 million), the US (7.2 million) and Russia (7.1 million).

Iraq has struggled with foreign-owned companies for control of its oilfields since oil was first found in the country in the 1920s.

When the industry was nationalised in the 1970s, oil revenues increased five-fold, boosting Saddam Hussein's ascent to power and providing funds for development and the country's growing military arsenal.

But 15 years later, at the height of post-1991 Gulf War sanctions, the industry was on its knees.

Oil production dropped nearly 90% in the six months after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait.

Under the initial embargo, all exports, imports and foreign investment were banned.

In 1996, with the country on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe, the United Nations allowed Iraq to begin exporting a limited amount of oil - $2bn every six months - to buy humanitarian supplies under the "oil-for-food" programme.

By 1998, oil prices had dropped. The UN permitted Iraq to import some spare parts for dilapidated production facilities and increased the threshold to $5.2bn.

	Enlarge image

For the following two years the country failed even to achieve this quota.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan wrote that the industry continued to be in "a lamentable state".

UN experts visited Iraq and concluded that some of the damage done to the oilfields during the previous two decades was irreparable.

If production was suddenly increased without upgrading the old equipment, they said, more damage would be done.

Since 2000, the threshold has been lifted completely. The value of spare parts bought under the oil-for-food regime has reached $4.8bn.

Production has risen to about three-quarters of its pre Gulf-War level.

Recent years have seen a flurry of negotiations between Baghdad and overseas investors hopeful that sanctions would soon be lifted.

Iraq struck agreements on oil exploitation with Russia, France, Vietnam, Syria and a number of other countries.

But as war has become increasingly likely, fears have grown among potential investors that a new US-supported Iraqi government would tear up such agreements and negotiate its own - primarily with US-based companies.

The industry needs massive investment

Iraq has recently reinstated a $3.7bn contract with Russia's largest oil company, Lukoil, which it cancelled in December.

The move may have been a political response to Russia's backing of UN resolutions on weapons inspections.

There are also concerns that war could bring a re-run of the devastation wreaked on Kuwait's oil industry during the 1991 Gulf War.

Saddam Hussein's forces set alight at least 600 oil wells and opened the taps on many others, spewing the equivalent of some eight million barrels of oil into the Gulf.

America's military plan is reported to include securing the oilfields, although according to the administration this is to protect and hold them "for the people of Iraq".

Israeli forces have killed 12 Palestinians and wounded more than 50 in what is believed to be their deepest incursion into Gaza City since the Palestinian uprising began more than two years ago.

Palestinians sources say some 50 tanks backed by helicopter gunships entered the city from three directions shortly after 2200 (2000 GMT), in the second Israeli incursion in the past 24 hours.

Israeli troops are reported to have stormed several buildings, destroying at least three metal workshops, as mosques called on Palestinians to resist the incursion.

The BBC's James Rodgers in Gaza City says bursts of gunfire rang out as Palestinians retaliated against the Israeli troops.

Our correspondent says shootings can be heard in the city centre near the central Palestine Square with the helicopters hovering in the sky.

The