ROME (May 13 2003) : The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) hasbought 22,000 tonnes of vegetable oil and 12,000 tonnes of pulses as foodaid for Iraq, a WFP official said on Monday.

"We bought 12,000 tonnes of pulses from Canada and 22,000 tonnes ofvegetable oils, including sunflower oil and soyabean oil, mainly fromTurkey, over the past week," the official told Reuters.

He said the vegetable oils included 4,000 tonnes from Argentina.

The official said WFP, the world's biggest food aid agency, had made nopurchases of grains such as wheat for Iraq over the past week.-Reuters