"The United States is pressuring Iraq to hand over its oil to multinational corporations" by pressing the government to pass an oil law, Kucinich, D-Ohio, a presidential candidate, told reporters Thursday.

President Bush said in January that Iraqi leaders should approve a law that equitably redistributes the oil wealth to its citizens, one of four benchmarks for success in the war. Congressional Democrats have co-opted the benchmarks into proposed supplemental war-spending legislation.

Kucinich and others say this is wrong for two reasons: First, the United States shouldn't tell Iraq what to do with its oil. Second, the law that's closest to being voted on by the Parliament barely mentions revenue-sharing at all.

Instead, the hydrocarbons framework law partitions the oil between central and regional control, and offers up blocks to foreign investment. Iraq's oil sector is nationalized, as is most of the Middle East.

A separate revenue-sharing law has not passed the negotiating table and is far from Cabinet approval, let alone Parliament.

Kucinich derided fellow Democrats for not removing the oil provision from the spending bill as well as not demanding a timetable for U.S. troop withdrawal. And he said if U.S. troops are allowed to stay in Iraq to protect U.S. citizens and assets, it would include protecting any part of the oil sector U.S. oil corporations are involved in, effectively prolonging troops' stay in the country.

"There's no way this war will ever end if Congress passes a bill that dictates to the Iraqi government they must hand over oil resources to multinational oil companies," he said.

The Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions earlier this month sent a letter to both the U.S. and European legislatures asking them to stop pressing for the law. Both Iraqi politicians and oil technocrats, as well as outside oil and political experts, say the pressure is making matters worse, forcing a bill through that has no consensus.

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Ben Lando, UPI Energy Correspondent