U.S. failed to stop Chinese technical aid to Iraq

WASHINGTON — Secret U.S. efforts to to stop an expanded Chinese program to upgrade Iraq's military capability have failed even as the Bush administration considers plans to ease sanctions on Baghdad.

China has been pouring technicians from military and state-owned enterprises into Baghdad to upgrade Iraqi communications and radar systems, U.S. officials said. They said the Chinese have completed major improvements to the Iraqi systems, including installing a fiber-optic network to link anti-aircraft batteries to command and control centers.

The Chinese are being paid in Iraqi oil, Middle East Newsline reports.

U.S. officials said the issue has been raised several times with Beijing but was kept under wraps to avoid a Chinese backlash. They said the U.S. strike on Iraqi anti-aircraft batteries around Baghdad on Feb. 16 was meant to send a message to China to stop helping Iraq's military. Officials, however, expressed skepticism that the message would change Beijing's policy.

The officials said such upgrades have significantly increased the Iraqi threat to U.S. and British warplanes that enforce the no-fly zones in southern and northern Iraq.

China has also been selling light weapons to Iraq, the officials said. Many of these weapons are then sold by the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to neighboring Arab countries.

Still, U.S. officials said the Bush administration plans to ease sanction on Iraq so as to preserve the coalition against the Saddam regime. The officials said Secretary of State Colin Powell plans to propose lifting restrictions on many imports, including dual-use items. At the same time, restrictions would be tightened on purely military imports.

A senior U.S. official said the new policy would be in place before the Arab League summit on March 27 in Amman. The administration strategy comes amid talks between the United Nations and Iraq in New York, in which Foreign Minister Mohammed Sahaf has rejected the return of UN inspectors under any condition.

The administration, however, plans to block unauthorized revenues to Iraq, including the operation of the Iraqi-Syrian oil pipeline. U.S. officials said Powell persuaded Syrian President Bashar Assad to place the operations of the pipeline — which is said to pump up to 200,000 barrels of oil a day — under UN supervision.

Powell also urged Jordan to renew the international monitoring of Iraqi-bound imports that arrive in the port of Aqaba. Last week, Jordan ruled out independent inspections amid the cancellation of a contract with Lloyd's Register.

"We want the world to know that our quarrel is not with the people of Iraq," Powell said in a speech in Kuwait on Monday. "It is with the regime in Baghdad."