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Russia likely to lose oil contracts

AFP, Moscow
A senior US defence adviser hinted in an interview published Monday in Moscow that Russia was likely to lose rights to Iraqi oil contracts signed under the Saddam Hussein regime.
"There is a high probability that all previous deals with Russia will be declared meaningless," Richard Perle, counsellor to Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, said in an interview with the Kommersant business daily.
"Of course this is something for the new Iraqi government to decide," Perle said in an interview published in Russian.
"But I would be surprised if Russia wins the support of the new Iraqi leadership -- the same support that it received from (Saddam) Hussein," he said.
Reuters adds: Russia will insist on UN arms inspectors declaring Iraq free of weapons of mass destruction before sanctions against it can be lifted, Itar-Tass news agency quoted a senior foreign ministry official as saying on Monday.
The unnamed official said chief weapons inspectors Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei, who headed UN inspections in Iraq prior to the US-led war, should be allowed to return and
quickly finish their work.
"This could be done within a couple of weeks as it is obvious that there are no such weapons there," the official told Itar-Tass.
Russia, which has veto power on the UN Security Council, has turned down Washington's requests for an immediate lifting of economic sanctions against Baghdad after US-led troops toppled the government of Saddam Hussein.
UN resolutions link the lifting of sanctions, imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of neighbouring Kuwait, to the country being certified free of weapons of mass destruction.
Russia, along with France and Germany, staunchly opposed using force to disarm Baghdad.
The fall of Baghdad into US hands has put Moscow in an awkward situation, leaving it torn between its own policy of preaching an end to sanctions and a desire to preserve a leading role for the United Nations in world affairs.
"The sanctions should be lifted as quickly as possible, immediately after Iraq complies with UN Security Council resolutions," the foreign ministry official said.
The official rejected any automatic steps to rid Baghdad of UN control over its foreign trade.