Iraq weapons deal may not satisfy UK and US

The Iraqis have said “that they accept all the rights of inspections that are laid down” in previous resolutions authorising UN inspections, said Hans Blix.

Suggesting that little stood in the way for the resumption of inspections, Amir Al Sadi, the head of the Iraqi negotiation team, said: “We expect the advance party to arrive in Baghdad in about two weeks.”

Al Sadi declined to outline specifics on what was agreed but suggested terms of the inspection would be regulated by previous Security Council resolutions. That would keep spontaneous inspection of Saddam Hussein’s presidential palaces - a US demand – off the agenda.

Blix, the chief UN, inspector said the talks focused on practical aspects of the renewed inspections.

“Where do you fly into Baghdad,” he said. What are the customs controls,... the accommodation of inspectors in Baghdad ... the movement within Iraq.

“We have talked openly about them, and we have gone through what you can at this stage,” he said.

President George Bush’s administration had been pushing for a resolution that would eliminate the conditions imposed by the deal cut in early 1998 between UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Baghdad.

Under the deal, the inspectors were not allowed to carry out unannounced visits to the presidential sites, encompassing a total of about 12 square miles, and had to be accompanied by a team of international diplomats when they did enter.

That restriction would have to be lifted by the Security Council, something UN representatives in Vienna had emphasised throughout the two days of talks.

Blix also said the restriction on access to the eight so-called presidential sites remained in effect.

The Iraqis handed over four CDs containing a backlog of monitoring reports for suspect sites and items, spanning June 1998 to July 2002, he said. Although that information was not yet analysed, it would provide important clues about Iraqi weapons activity, he said.

Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the Vienna-based Atomic Energy Agency, the venue of the talks, said the negotiations had resulted in “assurances from the Iraqis that we will have unconditional access to all sites,” except the so-called presidential sites.

Blix suggested the Iraqis were serious about allowing the return of his team, saying: “There is a willingness to accept inspections that has not existed before.”

Ahead of the end of the Vienna talks, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz said today that the Iraqi delegation was under instructions to fully cooperate with the inspectors to show there are no weapons of mass destruction in the country.

“Iraq will totally assist UN inspectors,” Aziz said in Turkey. “That way, those inspectors will be able to fulfil their mission and uncover the fact that there are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.”

But the apparent agreement did not automatically signal that inspections would quickly resume.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell said that before inspectors return to Iraq, Blix will have to wait and see whether the Security Council comes up with new guidance or additional resolutions that might require him to modify his plan,

“I’m pleased that he is in that state of readiness and we’ll have to see how things develop over the next couple of weeks with respect to a resolution with new requirements,” Powell said.

Nearly four years ago, inspectors hunting for evidence of weapons of mass destruction withdrew from Iraq on the eve of US-British air strikes amid allegations that Baghdad was not co-operating with the teams.

By the end of the 1991 Gulf War, IAEA assessments indicated Saddam was six months away from building an atomic bomb. Inspectors discovered the oil-rich nation had imported thousands of pounds of uranium, some of which was already refined for weapons use, and had considered two types of nuclear delivery systems.

Over the next six years, inspectors seized the uranium, destroyed facilities and chemicals, dismantled over 40 missiles and confiscated thousands of documents.