Iraq lifts ban on trade after Poland issues statement denying support of attacks

Iraq's Trade Minister Muhammad Mehdi Saleh announced Wednesday that his country would lift a ban on trade with Poland after Warsaw issued a statement carried by an Iraqi newspaper to deny that it openly backed recent U.S.-British attacks on air defense installations near Baghdad. The ban was imposed after Marek Nowakowski, a top foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek, was quoted by the Polish News Agency (PAP) as saying he saw "no such reason not to understand such actions (as the air attack)". These words, which were taken by the Iraqi government to suggest Poland's support of the air raids, prompted Prime Minister subsequently to dismiss Nowakowski. The adviser since qualified his remarks by saying that he had commented as an analyst and not as a senior government official. (Rzeczpospolita, p.A7; Reuters) M.T.