WHY do the Balkans matter to us? asked Foreign Secretary Jack Straw (LET, August 30). The answer has more to do with clearing the way for the trans-Balkan oil pipeline than with Mr Straw's digressions.

At the time of the bombing of Kosovo, the then US Energy Secretary said that the pipeline will be "vital to America's future energy needs." He added that "the politics have to come out right."

BRIAN LIVESEY, Belfield Road, Accrington.