KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 29 (Reuters) - An Iraqi state firm has contracted to buynearly 100,000 tonnes of palm oil from Malaysia for delivery in the nextsix months -- the country's first large purchase since the end of the GulfWar, an industry source said on Tuesday."This is the first time a Malaysian company gets an order to supplysuch large quantity to Iraq," said the source from a leading Malaysianfirm which gets the contract."Iraq used to buy sunflower oil and corn oil in large quantities, butwith prices of both oils going up due to less and less availability, palmoil products have become the obvious choice," said the source.The contract shown to Reuters said the palm oil should be of Malaysianorigin and consisted of 87,758 tonnes of RBD palm oil, 9,680 tonnes of RBDpalm stearin and 2,026 tonnes of palm kernel oil which should be shippedin a six-month period.Iraq was expected to buy some 200,000 tonnes of palm oil from Malaysiain 2002 because the country's cooking oil manufacturing sector had resumedactivity, said the source.Iraqi embassy officials in Kuala Lumpur declined comment.