The United Nations Security Council has lifted sanctions against Iraq. (Associated Press)

The UN Security Council on Wednesday lifted sanctions that prohibited Iraq from pursuing a civilian nuclear program, in a symbolic step to restore the country to the international standing it held before Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Iraq's constitution bars the country from acquiring weapons of mass destruction and the country is a party to the main nuclear, chemical, biological and missile treaties. The resolution, adopted unanimously, also lifted sanctions that barred Iraq from acquiring nuclear, chemical or biological weapons and long-range missiles.

The council also voted to return control of Iraq's oil and natural gas revenue to the government on June 30, 2011, and to terminate all remaining activities of the oil-for-food program which ran from 1996-2003 and helped ordinary Iraqis cope with sanctions.

The UN's most powerful body voted a day after a deadlock on forming a new Iraqi government ended and a year before the United States is scheduled to pull its last troops out of the country.

The council said it recognized "the positive developments in Iraq and that the situation now ... is significantly different from that which existed" after Saddam's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. It also recognized "the importance of Iraq achieving international standing equal to that which it held" prior to the invasion.

Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Wednesday's meeting of the Security Council was "a historic session" since it ends an international embargo imposed on Iraq because of the wars started by Saddam's regime.

Before the vote, Zebari called the lifting of the sanctions "the biggest political accomplishment for Iraq."

"I can say that the session today is the beginning of the end," Zebari told The Associated Press in a phone interview ahead of the meeting. "Today Iraq will be liberated from all sanctions caused by wars and misdeeds of the former regime."