Iraq hedges on inspection sites

BAGHDAD - Iraq mingled words of conciliation with defiance yesterday after the United States Congress voted to authorise President George W. Bush to wage war on Baghdad.

An adviser to President Saddam Hussein sent a letter to United Nations weapons inspectors, the second in a week, saying Iraq was ready to remove all obstacles to a return of inspectors after a nearly four-year break.

"We assert our complete readiness once again to receive the advance team on October 19 as per our preliminary agreement with you and our readiness to resolve all issues that may block the road to our joint co-operation," wrote General Amir al-Saadi.

The new letter to chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix and Mohamed El Baradei, head of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency, acknowledged their desire for "unfettered access" to eight of Saddam's palace sites, but made no specific concession on the issue.

Al-Saadi earlier wrote a letter to the two UN officials, pledging his co-operation but ignoring their demands, ranging from interviews to flying U-2 satellite spy planes.

The latest letter did suggest a new flexibility on allowing inspectors to interview Iraqis and to make flights over Iraqi territory.

But the Bush Administration on Saturday dismissed the letter as a delaying tactic by Baghdad and repeated its call for a strong UN Security Council resolution "which puts sustained, unambiguous pressure on Iraq to fulfil its obligations".

"Iraq continues to want to play word games and not comply," State Department spokeswoman Jo-Anne Prokopowicz said. "It will continue to make contradictory promises and then choose the version of most tactical benefit at any given moment."

A UN Security Council diplomat said Iraq was still avoiding a "yes" or "no" reply to the inspectors.

"It sounds like they recognise they had shot themselves in the foot with the first letter but this one still leaves loose ends. It is still not the clear-cut acceptance of the terms set out by Blix and El Baradei," the envoy said in New York.

Britain, Washington's closest ally, suggested the likelihood of conflict was receding because Iraq's threatened leadership was making concessions on inspections, designed to expose suspected programmes to develop nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told BBC radio: "Just four weeks ago [the Iraqis] were saying they would not have the inspectors back in any circumstances, that they had no weapons of mass destruction. There is only one reason why they have moved this far ... and that is because of the potential threat of force."

Iraq's Vice-President said Baghdad was ready to allow weapons inspectors to visit the palaces.

"The inspectors can search and inspect however and wherever they would like," Taha Yassin Ramadan told a German magazine. It was unclear whether he meant Iraq was now willing to abandon past procedural restrictions on palace access.

- REUTERS

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