United Nations, Monday

IRAQ'S deputy prime minister, Tareq Aziz, said today that no matter

what Baghdad did to comply with UN resolutions, the United States and

its allies would make sure sanctions remained in place.

Addressing a Security Council meeting he requested, Aziz blamed

President George Bush's administration for ''fabricating crises agains

Iraq''.

''No matter what Iraq does in fulfilment of obligations opposed upon

it, the unjust sentence passed by the council to starve the people of

Iraq . . . will remain in place simply because this is the will of

certain influential governments,'' Aziz said.

He said a recent US-inspired resolution seizing Iraq's frozen assets

abroad was tantamount to ''robbery''.

Aziz spoke after the council members had already launched a

pre-emptive displomatic strike, saying that Iraq had not met all

obligations under Gulf War resolutions and therefore sanctions imposed

after Baghdad's 1990 invasion of Kuwait would remain in place.

The minister said Iraqi children were suffering milk shortages and the

Iraqi population as a whole was experiencing ''dire shortages of food

and medicines,'' causing a 93% increase in the deaths of children under

five.

''To insist upon the embargo being imposed upon Iraq is to insist, in

actual terms, upon committing a crime of genocide against the people of

Iraq,'' Aziz said.

The council maintains that sanctions will not be changed until Iraq at

least honours two later resolutions demanding long-term compliance of

future potential arms industries.

Aziz maintained that the weapons have been totally destroyed.--Reuter.