Australian wheat freighter to Iraq, expected to arrive at the end of the week

Lead: Australian officials said one of the two ships carrying Australian wheat cargo went to Kuwait on Wednesday The aid will be delivered by road instead of waiting for Iraqi ports to be declared safe The cargo ship carrying 50000 tons of wheat will be the first batch of food aid to reach southern iraq 13 days after the war Christine gallus, zvn's secretary of foreign affairs, told Reuters that the wheat is expected to arrive in Iraq by the end of the week after the United States strongly urged the United Nations to restart its "World Food Program." A second cargo ship, also carrying 50000 tons of wheat, has left Oman and is waiting for us and Australian divers to clear mines at the port of ummsgale Zvn gallus told Reuters the United Nations is now sending one of its Australian wheat freighters to Kuwait special after a strong call for a world food program The two ships of wheat were intended to be shipped to Iraq, but they were transferred to Oman to anchor a few days before the war broke out This batch of wheat, originally purchased under an Iraqi contract, was shipped to Iraq at the request of AusAID, an Australian government agency, to alleviate the humanitarian crisis there Zvn Australian Trade Minister Mark Vaile said early Wednesday that unloading at the Gulf port was a long process, with 50000 tons of wheat usually taking 25 days to unload Industry sources say the wheat needs to be ground before it can be trucked to Iraq, possibly in Kuwait Over the weekend, the United Nations decided to resume the "oil for food" program, which allows Iraq to export a certain amount of oil in exchange for necessary funds for imported food and humanitarian supplies, which will speed up Australia's wheat aid to Iraq These 100000 tons of Australian wheat account for the vast majority of the $100 million in humanitarian aid Australia has pledged to Iraq (Note 1 USD = 1.64 AUD) zvn zvn