Local officials said sabotage has caused the fuel pipeline explosion west of Baghdad as Iraq was to restart its first postwar oil exports on Sunday. The affected pipeline carries gas from the city of Kirkuk, 150 miles north of Baghdad, to various parts of Iraq to fuel power stations. The Iraqi oil industry has been on hold since March 17, three days before the United States unleashed a blistering bombardment on Baghdad. The US administration is keen to get the industry running at full capacity as quickly as possible to use Iraq's vast reserves -- the second largest in the world -- to fund post-war reconstruction. Bremer warned Saturday at a meeting in Jordan of the World Economic Forum that the security situation in Iraq still presented problems for the resumption of exports.

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