The Security Council is likely to start a new six-month phase, which Iraqis interpret as a sign that sanctions will stay in place well into the future.

That argument did not convince all council members, as the Iraqis are thought to have generated $8.4 billion in oil sales in the latest six-month phase.

The next day Iraq stops pumping oil into the Iraqi-Turkish pipeline at the end of the second six-month phase of the United Nations (U.N.) oil-for-food program.

The agreement called for Israel to withdraw troops from portions of its area of control in three six-month phases starting in September 1996 - last month.

Over a six-month phase of intense project development, the site and the business are both built by people working around the clock.

The first phase is supposed to last about six months, to be followed by another six-month phase in which a Palestinian state "with provisional borders and attributes of sovereignty" is to be created.

For the first six six-month phases of the program, Iraq was allowed to export increasing amounts of oil in exchange for food, medicine, and other humanitarian goods.

The Bolivian energy nationalizations are to be followed by a six-month phase in which the government renegotiates energy contracts.

Under an American order a year ago, the total staff of the Soviet missions had to be reduced in six-month phases from 275 to 170 by April 1988.

Despite the warning, the U.N. Security Council approves a third six-month phase following the end of the second six-month phase.