The office of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has informed Turkey that its application to serve as a route for the shipments has been accepted, foreign trade undersecretary Tuncer Kayalar said in a written statement.

"We now expect that an important part of the shipments to Iraq will be made from the Iskenderun port and that a minimum of 250 trucks per day ... will transport goods to Iraq in the coming days," Kayalar said.

An independent company assigned by the United Nations to control the shipments was expected to start working in Iskenderun soon, he said.

An official from Kayalar's office told AFP they expected that most of the shipments from European countries under the oil-for-food program would be transported to Iraq via Iskenderun, which is also used by the US military.

The UN Security Council adopted a resolution in late March to allow the resumption of humanitarian aid for Iraq through its oil-for-food program.

An estimated 60 percent of the Iraqi population of 22 million depends on the program for daily supplies.

The arrangement, under which Iraq is allowed to sell oil to buy certain basic supplies under UN supervision, had been suspended on March 18 just before the United States launched its war against the Baghdad regime.

SPACE.WIRE