IRAQ ENDS OIL SMUGGLING EFFORTS BY SEA WASHINGTON Ñ Iraq has virtually halted the smuggling of crude oil via the Persian Gulf. Instead, U.S. officials said, the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has used neighboring Jordan and Syria as routes for the smuggling of hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil daily. The officials said the two countries then place the Iraqi oil or its equivalent on the world market. U.S. Central Command chief Gen. Tommy Franks said Baghdad's sea-smuggling efforts were reduced when Iran began to block shipments to and from Iraq. Franks said the international community has not succeeded in stopping Iraq from smuggling oil via land routes. "You're continuing to see a variety of oil leave by way of pipeline and by way of trucks over ground routes coming out of Iraq, and so -- not as successful there," Franks said in a briefing on Tuesday. The United Nations reported that Iraqi oil exports via the oil-for-food program dropped significantly over the last week. The UN Office of the Iraq Programme said authorized oil exports fell to 729,000 barrels during the week that ended on Oct. 25. The figure for the previous week was 3.03 million barrels.

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