Iraq claims oil-for-food supplies were hit in US-British raid that killed two

Anglo-US air strikes over the weekend aimed at the Iraqi city of Samawa, 270 km south of Baghdad, hit a regional ration distribution centre and a railway station, Iraqi officials claimed.

The Trade Minister, Mr Muhammad Mehdi Saleh, said in the first air raid supplies purchased under the oil-for-food programme were destroyed, two civilians killed and 19 injured.

In the second attack, dwellings near Samawa's railway station were damaged and an unknown number of injuries inflicted, a spokesman for the governor said. Baghdad says US and British strikes have killed more than 300 civilians and wounded 900 since the air campaign began in December 1998.

A spokesman for the US Central Command in Tampa, Florida, stated that US and British aircraft fired "smart" missiles at two Iraqi air defence sites after anti-aircraft batteries opened fire on aircraft patrolling the southern "no-fly zone".

Iraq argues that the air exclusion zones imposed after the 1991 Gulf War are illegal.

On Saturday, Iraq's highest policy-making body, the Revolutionary Command Council, castigated Saudi Arabia and Kuwait for allowing the US and Britain to mount air raids from bases in their territory.

The Iraqi Foreign Minister, Mr Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf, sent a letter to the Security Council accusing the two governments of "providing logistical support for the American and British forces, making them accomplices in aggression".

The latest attacks follow the visit to Baghdad last Thursday and Friday by the Venezuelan President, Mr Hugo Chavez, the first by a foreign head of state to the Iraqi capital since 1991.

The US was sharply critical of Mr Chavez, who is touring member states of the Organisation of Petroleum-Exporting Countries in his capacity as temporary head of the body. On Saturday Mr Chavez was told by Indonesian President Mr Abdurrahman Wahid that he too will break the taboo on visiting Baghdad. He called for an end to the punitive sanctions regime which is said to have killed 1.3 million Iraqis in the past decade. The Libyan leader, Col Moammar Gadafy, and the Sudanese President, Gen Omar alBashir, have also pledged to go to Baghdad to end Iraq's isolation and the ostracism of its President, Mr Saddam Hussein.

The US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, said on Saturday that President Wahid would harm his country's stature if he visited Iraq.

"I think it would be very useful [for him to listen to US advice]. President Wahid has a great deal to do in Indonesia," she said.

The US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, Mr Thomas Pickering, had already asked Mr Wahid not to visit Iraq or other countries Washington regards as state sponsors of terrorism, but the Indonesian leader rejected the request. "We are not a lackey of the US," President Wahid said. "We are free to go anywhere."