BAGHDAD, Aug 4 (Reuter) - European Commissioner Emma Bonino arrived in Baghdad on Monday to assess the humanitarian situation in Iraq, hard hit by United Nations sanctions imposed in 1990. Bonino, Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid, is the first senior EU official to visit Iraq since the 1990-91 Gulf War, and is accompanied by a team of 15, representing EU governments, staff from her department and relief groups. "The visit is a humanitarian assessment mission just to see what is needed," Bonino told Western reporters in Baghdad shortly after her arrival. Asked if she was invited by the Iraqi government Bonino replied "I have decided to come." There has been no official word on her visit from Iraq. Bonino, who will stay in Iraq until Thursday, will meet senior Iraqi officials such as Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz, Foreign Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf and Health Minister Umeed Madhat Mubarak. She will also meet U.N. officials in Iraq and non-governmental organisations. She said her visit would also incl

ude tours of humanitarian projects in Iraq funded by the European Union. "We have been financing projects in Iraq since 1991. We have allocated more than $300 million to humanitarian issues (in Iraq)," she said. "We are supplying (water) pumps and health care through the (International Committee of) the Red Cross and several European and U.N. oraganisations," Bonino said. The European envoy, who landed at Habaniya airport, 150 km (90 miles) northwest of Baghdad, will visit hospitals and water purification systems in Baghdad and other parts of the country. She will also visit Iraq's Kurdish north, which has been out of the control of the central government since the Gulf War. "I am leaving tomorrow afternoon for the north," she said. The United Nations imposed stringent trade sanctions on Iraq after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, including a ban on exports of Iraq's oil. But since last December the U.N. has allowed Baghdad to sell $2 billion worth of oil to buy food, medicine and other humanitarian goods to hel

p offset the effects of the embargo on the Iraqi people. Some European countries which took part in the U.S.-led campaign to drive Iraqi troops out of Kuwait in 1991 have been softening their attitude towards Baghdad. France, Spain and Italy have reopened their embassies in Baghdad and have been encouraging trade delegations to conclude deals under the oil-for-food plan with the United Nations.