BAGHDAD, May 15 (Xinhuanet) - Iraqi Finance Minister Hekmat Ibrahim al-Azzawi on Wednesday slammed the United States and Britain for holding up Iraq's humanitarian contracts under the United Nations oil-for-food program.

　The suspension of contracts by representatives at the U.N. Sanctions Committee has been "aimed at hurting the Iraqi people and prolonging the unjust sanctions", Azzawi was quoted as saying by the Iraqi News Agency.

　Iraq said on May 7 that a total of 2,590 contracts, with a value of 7.98 billion U.S. dollars, were suspended by the United States and Britain.

　These contracts have been signed by Iraq and other countries under the U.N. oil-for-food deal, which took effect in 1996 to allow Iraq to sell oil and buy food, medicine and other essentials to offset the impact of sanctions.

　Iraq has blamed the U.N. sanctions, imposed on the oil-rich country since 1990, for the deaths of over 1.5 million people, mostly of them children and the elderly. (End)