Chief UN spokesman Fred Eckhard confirmed Iraq had cut-off oil flows to the Turkish Port of Ceyhan on Monday, would do the same at its Gulf Port on Tuesday and had decided not to sign a new agreement with the United Nations governing the oil-for-food programme that began in December 1996.

The programme allows Baghdad to sell $5.26 billion in oil every six months to buy food, medicine and other goods for ordinary Iraqis. It is meant to offset stringent UN sanctions imposed when Baghdad's troops invaded Kuwait in August 1990. However, Eckhard said that UN humanitarian operations would continue working normally until Secretary-General Kofi Annan received Iraq's decision in writing.

``There are an awful lot of supplies in the pipeline so our work doesn't need to stop just because the oil stopped flowing,'' Eckhard said.

Iraq's UN ambassador, Saeed Hasan informed the United Nations of Baghdad's decision by leaving a voice mail on the home telephone of chief UN legal counsel, Hans Corell, UN officials said. The United Nations has several hundred staff in Iraq supervising the oil-for-food programme Iraq just cancelled by refusing to renew a ``memorandum of understanding'' covering operations of UN staff in Iraq.

Iraq objected to the UN Security Council's short two-week extension to the oil-for-food plan on Friday, following a dispute between the United States and Russia. The stop gap measure was because Washington wanted to renew the programme on the same terms as previous while Russia wanted improvements on the lines Annan had recommended.

Baghdad daily has also rejected proposals, most of them not made public, being discussed among the five permanent Security Council members - the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China - that would suspend sanctions in exchange for arms inspectors returning to Iraq after nearly a year's hiatus.

One of the main disputes is whether or how many disarmament tasks Iraq must fulfill before it can qualify for a suspension of the sanctions. The United States and Britain say key questions must be answered while Russia and China insist cooperation with a new commission is sufficient for the easing of the embargoes. UN officials told reporters that independent oil experts from the Dutch Saybolt firm, hired by the United Nations, advised the world body that the oil flow from Iraq to the Turkish Port of Ceyhan stopped early on Monday.

They said that two out of three ships were still loading at Iraq's Gulf Port of Mina al-Bakr and were not expected to finish until tomorrow afternoon. Saybolt advised that when these loadings are completed Iraq will have exports almost all the 390.8 million barrels contracted for under the sixth phase of the programme that ended on Saturday but was extended for two weeks.