UNITED NATIONS — Iraq's U.N. ambassador urged the Security Council yesterday to lift the arms embargo and economic restrictions it imposed on Saddam Hussein's government, calling them "shackles and burdens" on Iraq's fledgling democracy.

Samir Sumaidaie said Iraq's new transitional leaders want the council to end the use of Iraqi oil revenue to pay U.N. weapons inspectors and to dismantle other legal and bureaucratic restrictions "which have outlived their relevance."

Officially, Sumaidaie noted, Iraqi imports are still subject to inspection — a restriction that can only be lifted by the Security Council, along with the arms embargo imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Last month, Sumaidaie complained that more than $12 million annually in Iraqi oil money is going to the U.N. commission charged with chemical, biological and missile inspections and $12.3 million in the next two years to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for nuclear inspectors.

The U.N. and IAEA inspectors left Iraq just before the March 2003 U.S.-led war that toppled Saddam, and the United States has barred them from returning.

Rumsfeld in Iraq, warns leadership

BAGHDAD, Iraq — U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, on a surprise visit today to Iraq, warned the country's new interim leaders against political purges and cronyism that could spark "lack of confidence or corruption in government."

He said the United States also opposed any move to delay the political schedule in Iraq, which includes drafting a new constitution by mid-August and national elections next December.

"The presence of [U.S.] security forces is not going to be something that is going to go on forever," he said aboard his military-transport plane.

Pentagon to limit deployments

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is limiting deployments of U.S. troops to Iraq and other combat zones to 12 months, with a new memo requiring Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to approve any major extensions.

The memo, signed March 30 by David Chu, the Pentagon's undersecretary for personnel, clarifies the U.S. military's "boots on the ground" rules, Air Force Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said yesterday.

Also

Pentagon auditors have questioned nearly $122 million in costs claimed by Halliburton under contracts to rebuild Iraq's oil industry and supply fuel to its citizens, according to records released yesterday.