One official said other routes, including the possible use of lines through Syria and Saudi Arabia, would be just as vulnerable to sabotage which has largely choked-off the northern route since the fall of Saddam Hussein in April. "The security problems are exactly the same as with the Turkish route if not worse" he said, on condition of anonymity. Sabotage of the pipeline to Turkey has deprived Iraq of millions of dollars of oil revenues needed to rebuild the country after years of war, United Nations sanctions and economic mismanagement. The US-led administration running Iraq has said it will hire thousands of people to guard the pipeline. But safeguarding hundreds of miles of exposed pipeline against bombings is a daunting task. The northern pipeline, which carries crude oil from Iraq's Kirkuk fields to Turkey's Mediterranean coast, was closed by sabotage in mid-August just days after it began shipping crude to world markets. Repairs should be completed by mid-October, and first exports after the latest damage could come by early November, other Turkish officials said. Crude from the Kirkuk field to any export route must pass near the town of Baiji at the northern edge of the volatile Sunni Muslim heartland where attacks on oil facilities and US troops by suspected Saddam loyalists persist. The US-led Provisional Coalition Authority in Iraq is looking at alternative routes to export Kirkuk crude that would allow resumption of sales. No detailed feasibility studies had been conducted yet on which routes Iraq could use if the Turkish pipeline now under repair were attacked again and crippled. The three possible routes for oil exports from Iraq's oldest field include use of a reversible strategic pipeline to divert Kirkuk crude to export terminals in the south. Oil could also flow through the strategic pipeline to a southern pipeline through Saudi Arabia or it could be diverted to a western route through Syria. According to Turkish official surveys, a key pumping station near Haditha northwest of Baghdad needs rehabilitation before Kirkuk crude can be pushed south or to Syria. Iraq must also rehabilitate the pumps along the 1.4 million bpd 'strategic pipeline' that is configured to carry crude either from the south of Iraq to Turkey or in the reverse direction from the Kirkuk fields to Iraq's Gulf coast.