Iraq's state-run Grain Board said on Thursday it amended its tender to buy 100,000 to 150,000 tonnes of hard white milling wheat from the United States to include US hard red winter wheat. The announcement, made by the agency on its Web site, http://www.iqgb.com, comes on the heel of comments from US traders that there was not enough hard white wheat in the United States to fill Iraq's tender, which was issued Friday.

Iraq's Grain Board had originally sought only hard white milling quality wheat for delivery in April and May.

The tender closes on February 28. Traders had said the quality of the US hard white wheat crop had been hurt by rains before last year's harvest.

White wheat is considered a new class of wheat in the United States, largely supplied to domestic millers and used to make noodles, flatbread and tortillas.

Iraq has bought a total of 377,100 tonnes of wheat from the United States in the current marketing season that began on June 1, according to a weekly USDA report on Thursday.

US traders are optimistic that recent sales of US wheat to Iraq could pave the way to breaking Australia's dominance of the country's wheat market. Iraq is expected to import up to 3 million tonnes of wheat a year. It signed an agreement in October to buy 1 million tonnes of hard white wheat from Australia for delivery in the first quarter of this year.

Copyright Reuters, 2005