Sabotaged pipeline to be repaired in 10 days

The commander of military engineers in charge of repairing the sabotaged main pipeline out of Iraq has said that oil will not resume pumping oil for at least another 10 days.

It was hoped the pipeline, targeted in an August 15 bomb attack, would be up and running again within a week of the attack.

Colonel RW Nicholson, head of the Fourth Infantry Division's Combat Engineers working on the pipeline, said repairs would not be finished before the end of August.

The pipeline runs 600 kilometres from Tikrit in the north of Iraq to Turkey and is the nation's key means of exporting its oil.