IRAQ-SAUDI-MEHDI SALEH

BAG04-19980928-BAGHDAD, IRAQ : Iraqi commerce minister Mohammed Mehdi Saleh announces 28 September that Baghdad has signed an unspecified number of contracts with Saudi Arabian firms to purchase humanitarian goods under the UN-supervised oil-for-food programme. The contracts with Saudi firms were signed to buy food and pharmaceutical supplies worth 100 million dollars. Iraq has been under strict sanctions sine its 1990 invasion of Kuwait but is allowed to sell a limited amount of oil to buy necessary supplies. EPA PHOTO AFP/KARIM SAHIB/ks/ja/cg-cl