U.S. expected to give eight countries Iran sanctions waivers: sources

WASHINGTON/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The United States is expected to spare eight countries from U.S. sanctions because they have significantly cut imports of Iranian oil, two sources familiar with the matter said on Friday.

The U.S. move, which was described by a congressional source and by another source familiar with the matter, were confirming a report by Bloomberg that Washington would allow the eight to keep buying Iranian oil after it re-imposes sanctions on Tehran on Monday. The did not identify the eight nations, though among Iran's biggest customers are China, India, Turkey, Japan, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, Greece and Italy.

Iran's biggest oil customers - all in Asia - have been seeking sanctions waivers to allow them to continue buying some of its oil and have argued that a total ban would spur a further rally in the price of crude.

(Reporting by Arshad Mohammed, Patricia Zengerle and Lesley Wroughton; Additional reporting by Henning Gloystein in SINGAPORE, Aizhu Chen in BEIJING and Dmitry Zhdannikov in London; Hyonhee Shin in SEOUL, Osamu Tsukimori in TOKYO, Gulsen Solaker in ANKARA; Editing by Tom Hogue, Dale Hudson and Susan Thomas)