BAGHDAD, March 9 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani chaired a meeting on Sunday to assess plans for securing the electricity supply ahead of the summer, following Washington's decision to end Baghdad's waiver to purchase power from Iran.

Iraq's electricity ministry presented measures to maintain power supply, while the oil ministry outlined plans to provide the necessary fuel for power plants, al-Sudani's office said in a statement.

According to the statement, the meeting approved a 40-km gas pipeline extension from al-Mahmoudiya to Bismayah, which allows the Bismayah power plant to operate at full capacity during the summer.

The United States rescinded the waiver on Saturday, U.S. media reported, as part of its "maximum pressure" campaign on Tehran.

Ahmad Moussa, a spokesperson for Iraq's Ministry of Electricity, said that a ban on gas imports would "cause Iraq to lose more than 30 percent of its electricity energy," adding that Iranian gas supplies to power plants in Baghdad and the central Euphrates region had been halted for the past two months. Supplies to southern power plants had been unstable.

Decades of conflict have left Iraq struggling with chronic electricity shortages. Despite its oil wealth, the country remains heavily dependent on Iranian gas imports to power its grid. It also imports a large amount of electricity from its eastern neighbor. Enditem

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