BAGHDAD, February 13 (Xinhuanet) -- The head of the Iraqi
Electricity Commission on Wednesday threatened to sue foreign
companies that failed to implement contracts of power switchboards
maintenance signed with Iraq, the official Iraqi News Agency (INA)
reported.
   Faisal Sahban Mahjoub, director of the Iraqi Electricity
Commission, said that Iraq would raise the issue at international
levels to reveal those foreign firms that failed to complete their
work in Iraq.
   The Iraqi official also slammed the United Nations Sanctions
Committee for blocking Iraq's power contracts signed with other
countries under the U.N. oil-for-food program and urged U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan "to swiftly intervene" to release
them, the INA said.
   The U.N. oil-for-food program launched in 1996 allows Iraq,
which has been under U.N. sanctions since its 1990 invasion of
Kuwait, to sell oil and use part of the revenues to buy food,
medicine and other essentials to offset the impact of the
sanctions.
   Iraq has often chastised the representatives of the United
States and Britain at the U.N. Sanctions Committee for shelving
Iraq's vital contracts, and claimed over 2,300 humanitarian
contracts valued at 7.3 billion U.S. dollars have been putting on
hold.  Enditem