IRAQ: Iraq has put into practice a UN-brokered agreement to return to Kuwait national archives seized during its occupation of the emirate.
Five trucks set out from Baghdad yesterday for the border with the emirate carrying "all of Kuwait's national archives", said foreign ministry official Ghassan Mohsen Hussein, who is accompanying the convoy for the handover due today in the UN-monitored demilitarised zone along the frontier.
The handover ceremony will take place at the Kuwaiti Abdali border post, 600 km south of Baghdad, in line with an agreement reached under UN auspices and with the participation of the Arab League, he said.
Foreign ministry officials said each truck had a capacity of 20 tons but did not say what their total cargo was.
The return of the archives is also in keeping with pledges Iraq made at last March's Arab summit in Beirut, Saddam told reporters before the convoy started its journey south, escorted by military personnel.
Iraq and Kuwait reached a landmark agreement in Beirut, 11 years after a US-led coalition ended Iraq's seven-month occupation of the emirate, with Baghdad pledging never again to invade its neighbour.
The compromise accord said Iraq's respect for Kuwait's sovereignty would prevent a recurrence of the 1990 invasion which sparked the 1991 Gulf War.
President Saddam said the documents would be handed over to Kuwait in the presence of Mr Richard Foran, the UN official in charge of the archives issue. They include the archives of Kuwait's emir, Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah, and those of the Gulf state's foreign and interior ministries, he said.