The United Nations has released payments of 892.7 million dollars (1.01 billion euros) for victims of Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, the UN Compensation Commission (UNCC) announced on Thursday.
The latest round, which included a 40 million dollar (45.3 million euro) payment to the government of Israel, focused on payments to 17 governments for claims made by states or companies, UNCC said in a statement.
About 797.8 million dollars (903.6 million euros) were allocated to Kuwait to satisfy 306 claims.
Two companies in Bosnia-Hercegovina and in Russia received 10 million dollars each.
The UNCC said it had made 13.7 billion dollars of compensation available so far and hoped to complete all approved claims payments by mid-2003.
It has received 2.6 million compensation claims equivalent to 300 billion dollars in relation to the Gulf War.
Up to 30 percent of the commission's revenue comes from Iraqi oil exports, mainly from the UN's "oil for food" program -- AFP
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