Asked if there was a timeframe within which the deal would be finalised, Mr Naik said, "I would like to have it within a month." He said the imports would be under the oil-for-food programme of the United Nations, which allows Iraq to sell unlimited quantities of oil to buy food, medicine and other humanitarian needs. "In these discussions it is necessary to take permission from the United Nations. We will be doing that," he said. "We have surplus food available with us...in a way we are going to have a problem of surplus. we have no go-downs (warehouses) to store the excess wheat that is coming into the market," he said.

(Reuters)