Baghdad: Iraq on March 29 rejected a new Security Council resolution renewing the seven-year-old oil-for-food programme under sole charge of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

"Only Iraq can administer this programme," Information Minister Mohammed Said al- Sahhaf told a press conference in response to the resolution adopted by the Council unanimously on March 28.

"They have made a mockery of the (1995) resolution which paved the way for the launch of the programme, on which an estimated 60 per cent of Iraqis now depend for food and medicine," Sahhaf said.

"Any measure which does not involve the Iraqi government cannot be implemented on the ground," he said.

The latest resolution, 1472, gives the UN chief sole authority for a renewable period of 45 days to make purchases of food and medicine using income from UN- supervised Iraqi oil exports.