IRAQIS RECEIVE FOOD RATIONS, 2000-06-09 (photo)

Iraqis receive food rations June 9. The U.N. Security Council extended for six months on Thursday the Iraq oil-for-food program, the humanitarian lifeline for 22 million Iraqis living under the 10-year-old sanctions. The 15 member body voted unanimously minutes before midnight, the last possible moment when the previous six month phase expired for the program that allows Iraq to sell unlimited quantities of oil, under U.N. supervision, to buy food, medicine and other humanitarian supplies. The resolution co-sponsored by Britain and France was delayed because of haggling between China and the United States on a U.N. review of the humanitarian situation in Iraq. China wants to refer to the sanctions as responsible for the suffering of the Iraqi people. But Britain, the United States and others kept the language as neutral as possible. JP