The ongoing crisis in Iraq has placed U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on a delicate diplomatic tightrope, in which he must simultaneously mute talk of renewed conflict and seek increased humanitarian aid for Iraqi civilians.

Those two tasks have both come to a head this week, as Annan urged the U.N. Security Council to allow Iraq to sell 5.2 billion dollars worth of oil over the next six months even as he offered his willingness to help mediate the standoff between Iraq and U.N. weapons inspectors.

Annan on Monday insisted that the two issues are not connected. U.N. officials have pleaded that the need to provide humanitarian aid to Iraqis not become ensnared in the increasingly tense war of words between Baghdad and Washington. The U.N. chief conceded, however, if there is any military action in Iraq, he would have to pull out some 475 U.N. officers – ncluding weapons inspectors and aid workers – from the country.

“Obviously, we would not want to put our staff at risk,” he said.

Conversely, the secretary-general’s plan to expand an ‘oil-for- food’ deal, which currently allows Baghdad to sell two billion dollars of oil to buy food and medicine every six months, may help provide an incentive for Iraq to cooperate with the United Nations. Yet Annan insisted that U.N. officials “do not see (the oil deal) as a carrot,” but as an urgent effort to deal with a humanitarian crisis.

In a report submitted to the 15-nation Security Council on Sunday, Annan argued that the oil-for-food deal so far has been insufficient to prevent Iraqis from suffering malnutrition and sickness after more than seven and a half years of international sanctions.

The present programme, he noted, provides only 1.3 billion dollars for Iraqi food and medicine purchases every six months – an amount, he wrote, “inadequate to prevent further deterioration in humanitarian conditions.”

Instead, the United Nations is proposing an increase in Iraqi oil sales over the next six-month phase by 3.2 billion dollars, of which more than 2.1 billion dollars would provide for humanitarian expenses. Of that latter amount, 1.1 billion dollars is intended to rebuild sanctions-hit Iraqi infrastructure, including water, sanitation and electricity networks, to repair schools and dams and to improve food distribution and storage.

Annan Monday called the rehabilitation funds “a one-time expenditure to refurbish infrastructure, which is in a terrible state of disrepair,” and warned that failure to provide the money now could render U.N. aid efforts meaningless later.

U.N. officials say that the Council, which in the past has not even considered providing such infrastructure funds, received the report favourably and seems willing to act. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told IPS, “We’re looking at this report with an open mind.”

Yet as tensions rise between Iraq and the United States, some diplomats here also dispute how much aid needs to be provided. One Western official contended that Iraq, which has long provided subsidised food to its needy population, has used the ‘oil-for- food’ aid to replace its own food baskets – although the U.N. plan was intended to supplement Baghdad’s efforts.

A senior U.N. official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, acknowledged it was “possible” that Iraq had reduced its own food baskets, but he added that the United Nations still intended for Baghdad to complement U.N. aid provision. The United Nations, in the new plan, intends to deliver food baskets that provide some 2,400 calories per person per day, the official said, but it expects local production to contribute several hundred calories per person per day in additional baskets.

The United Nations is also planning other improvements. Annan noted that the food basket, which has previously included a daily vegetable protein intake of 47 grams per person, will for the first time include animal proteins, raising total daily protein intake to more than 63 grams per person. The U.N. Office of the Iraq Programme has targetted 1.9 million people, including malnourished children, pregnant women, hospital patients and internally displaced groups, for the food supplements.

The Security Council is expected to debate the augmented food plan over the next few days, and U.N. officials hope it will be approved quickly. However, it may take weeks more for Iraq to present its own response and to sort out the logistics for the increased oil sales, and one senior official expects the plan might not take effect until March at the earliest.

Meanwhile, the military escalation in the Persian Gulf is being accompanied by its own diplomatic timetable, with U.S. officials reportedly planning for an attack this month if Iraq does not allow full U.N. access to dozens of presidential sites that Baghdad has declared off-limits for weapons inspections.

Although U.N. officials have tried to delink the conflict from the aid issue, they are aware that new fighting in Iraq could change all their plans. Annan on Monday implored Baghdad to allow “free and unfettered access,” and added about the possibility of warfare, “They don’t need it, the region doesn’t need it and the world certainly can do without it.”

The secretary-general, however, may be unable to stop U.S. military strikes, since U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has asserted that Washington does not need any further Council authority if it decides to attack Iraq in order to break the disarmament standoff. U.S. forces in fact cited “pre-existing” Council authority when they attacked Iraq in 1993.

“I think everybody would agree that it would be preferable to get a Council authorisation before there is any military action,” Annan said. But he pointedly refrained from saying that Washington does not have the authority to act alone – which diplomats say it may still do if, as expected, China and Russia remain opposed to a military strike.