French oil company TotalFinaElf is negotiating with Ethiopian oil authorities with a view to entering the fuel distribution market in the Horn of Africa country, officials said. The Ethiopian Petroleum Authority said that Total wanted to enter the Ethiopian market to compete with the distribution branches of other oil giants, the US-based ExxonMobil and Anglo-Dutch company Shell.

MADRID – Spain's second-largest oil group Cepsa said it had inked a deal with Iraq's Somo to buy two million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil from Iraq. Although no date was given for the deal, which follows on from one signed in June for one million bpd, the oil will be loaded from the southern port of Mina Al Bakr. The company, which said the deal was the result of "direct and unilateral" talks with Somo, added that it was part of a strategy to diversify. Another of Spain's major producers, Repsol-YPF, said it was also chasing a second deal for an unspecified amount of Iraqi oil on the back of a one million bpd agreement signed three months ago.

BAGHDAD – Robert McKee, a former head of US oil giant ConocoPhillips, has been appointed as advisor to the Iraqi oil ministry, replacing Philip Carroll, US officials in Iraq said. Carroll, an American who is the former CEO of Shell Oil, was charged with directing the Iraqi oil sector since April but now wants to "devote himself to his private life", the US-led Provisional Authority said. McKee, who will take up his post in October, retired in April from ConocoPhillips, of which he was executive vice-president.

JERUSALEM – Israeli Finance Minister Benyamin Netanyahu decided not to attend last week's joint annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Dubai, his office said. The former prime minister would remain in Israel "to complete treasury propositions concerning the 2004 budget", the ministry said in a statement, adding that Meir Sheerit, a minister without portfolio, would go in his place.

DUBAI – The World Bank called on governments in developing countries to allow poor communities to monitor more closely services such as health, education and water distribution, saying that key facilities are often failing the people most in need. However, the bank's World Development Report 2004 drew immediate fire from some NGOs, which accused the bank of neglecting to mention the impact of its own policies on the poor.