The decision last week to suspend deliveries of fuel oil to North Korea under the 1994 agreement was meant to force it to abandon its illegal weapons program.

Royal Mail spokesman Sally Hopkins said the decision to temporarily suspend deliveries had been taken as a last resort.

She said: "We have reluctantly decided to temporarily suspend deliveries to a number of addresses in a particular part of Benfleet.

Last week, they agreed to suspend indefinitely deliveries of heavy fuel oil, which the United States had agreed to provide at the rate of 500,000 tons annually.

Despite the angry distress of Congress and the American public, he limited official reaction to suspending military deliveries and high-level contacts.

That is 12 feet below the current level, 1,139 feet, and just 2 feet above the level where the federal government would be required under the October agreement to suspend deliveries of surplus water.

Nearly 200 companies that supply components for Daewoo Motor said they would suspend deliveries beginning on Thursday unless the company began to pay them more than $300 million in accumulated debts.

The United States suspended deliveries of cluster bombs to Israel after they were used against civilian areas during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982.

For example, Sonatrach, the national petroleum company of Algeria, informed Texaco that it had indefinitely suspended deliveries of crude oil because of concern over Texaco's ability to pay.

While the decision to suspend military deliveries was endorsed by Mr. Kohl's Government, it appeared to have been initiated by Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher.