U.N. EASES IRAQ SANCTIONS

The U.N. will allowIraqto sell $2 billion worth of oil to buy food and medicine for Iraqis who have been suffering under sanctions imposed after Saddam Hussein's1990 invasion of Kuwait. Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz said Iraq would not accept the deal because it wants the U.N. to completely eliminate the sanctions. In 1991, Iraq rejected a similar offer, complaining that it infringed on Iraq's sovereignty.TIME U.N. correspondent Bonnie Angelosays Saddam is unlikely to back down from that stance unless he is given a way to "save face." The U.N. wants to deflect criticism that Iraqi residents are suffering from the sanctions, but still refuses to lift them because itsuspects Iraq is making biological weapons.