Oil prices hit two-year high as Iraq rejects UN peace force

OIL prices rose to a two-year high after Iraq said ‘no’ to United Nations peacekeeping troops in Iraq under a Franco-Germany strategy to avoid Gulf war II.

The rise came despite international resistance to a US-led war in Iraq, after the head of the world’s biggest oil company said US strategic reserves should not be used to curb prices.

France and Germany wanted the peacekeepers to be present while UN inspectors stripped Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction.