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In a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the Iraqi ambassador to the world body, Mohammed al-Douri, said Iraq is taking this course because of the outbreak of the livestock disease in neighboring states.
The letter, circulated Friday at the U.N. headquarters in New York, said Annan will be asked to approve the financing of the laboratory's refurbishment out of revenue from the U.N. oil-for-food program.
The letter warns Annan "against attempts by the United States and the United Kingdom to obstruct this process." The United States and Britain have taken the toughest line in vetoing Iraqi imports that may have a military use.
Iraq said so far this year it has had no incidence of foot-and-mouth. But Saudi Arabia, which borders Iraq to the south, reported 400 cases last month and Iran, which lies east of Iraq, also reported an outbreak.
Foot-and-mouth is spread by a highly contagious virus that infects cloven-hoofed animals such as cows, sheep and pigs. It does not pose a medical threat to humans, but it causes sickness, weight loss and sores on animals.
A Baghdad laboratory used to produce sufficient quantities of foot-and-mouth vaccine to meet Iraq's requirements and to export to other countries. But in 1996 the U.N. disarmament commission destroyed the lab's equipment on grounds that it could be used for the manufacture of biological weapons.
The ambassador said the destruction led to a 1998 epidemic that caused the loss of 575,000 lambs and calves before U.N. imports of the vaccine arrived.
Under the oil-for-food program, Iraq may bypass the sanctions imposed since its 1990 invasion of Kuwait in order to sell oil and import goods approved by a U.N. committee on which Washington and London are represented.
The sanctions can only be lifted when Iraq proves that it has eliminated its nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. Iraq said it has done so, but refuses to cooperate with U.N. arms inspectors.
