The US-led war in Iraq has so far had only a limited impact on India's sugar exports, which are set to surpass previous year's sales due largely to demand from South East Asia, trade officials said on Tuesday.

Industry officials said exports had not been badly hit as India does not sell much to countries in the Middle East and its market is largely in Southeast Asia, neighbouring Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

"In the first six months of the sugar year which began in October, we have crossed 1.05 million tonnes of exports compared with 1.08 million in the whole of the previous year," said S L Jain, director general of the Indian Sugar Mills Association.

Vinay Kumar, managing director of the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories, told Reuters the impact of the war was also lessened as the bulk of India's sugar exports was on free-on-board basis, making shipments the buyer's responsibility.

A cargo of 13,000 tonnes of sugar, sold to an Egyptian buyer but bound for Iraq, was anchored near Jordan due to the war, Kumar said, adding the payment for the commodity had already been received by the seller.

R K Jain, managing director of New Delhi-based Priyanka Overseas Ltd, said last week two of the company's ships carrying wheat and sugar were waiting to berth at Umm Qasr.

Fresh deals for shipments to Iraq were not taking place but being inked for exports to other nations, traders said.

Exports up

Industry officials said overall exports were good.

Trade officials said exports in the current sugar year would be in the range of 1.5-2.0 million tonnes.

India, the world's second-largest sugar producer, has been aggressively selling sugar, helped by freight subsidies and under pressure to cut huge stocks to make room for a new crop.

It is aiming to get a big share of the 600,000 tonnes of sugar required by Indonesia, one of Asia's largest buyers.

The country bought 50,000 tonnes of Indian whites in February and plans to float a tender this month to buy another 50,000 tonnes.

"We are very active in Indonesia, already three vessels have gone and more are going," said Jain, adding they were also looking at exports to Malaysia.

Kumar said India had sold 25,000 tonnes of sugar to Yemen. Of this, a cargo of 12,500 tonnes has already been sent and the remaining would be dispatched after April 15. India was also looking at sales to Egypt which needs about 500,000 tonnes.

Kumar said buyers had not had any difficulty for the shipments to Yemen and faced no disruptions there.