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UN weapons inspectors and Iraq's top arms experts agreed on Tuesday to meet in about two weeks in Vienna to discuss practical arrangements for the return of the inspectors after a nearly four-year hiatus.
The two sides met briefly at U.N. headquarters in what Iraqi officials called "preliminary talks" to discuss logistic issues on offices, flights, escorts and other planning.
Chief U.N. weapons inspectors Hans Blix said in a statement the two sides would meet in Vienna sometime during the week of Sept. 30. A precise date has not been set.
Iraqi officials also agreed to consider national legislation prohibiting weapons of mass destruction activities, as required by U.N. resolutions, and to catch up on declarations of changes in former weapons sites that were under U.N. monitoring, the statement said.
Iraq has not submitted declarations, required twice a year, since the inspectors were pulled out of Iraq in December 1998, hours before a U.S.-British bombing blitz designed to punish Baghdad for its alleged failure to cooperate with them.
The United States, which wants a "regime change" in Baghdad, has threatened military action and is pressing the 15-member U.N. Security Council to give arms inspectors new and stronger powers before they return to Baghdad.
There was no word on when the inspectors would return.
Blix conferred with Hasam Mohammed Amin, head of the Iraqi National Monitoring Directorate, the office used for liaison with U.N. inspectors, and Saeed Hasan, a Foreign Minister official, who was Baghdad's former U.N. ambassador.
"In this meeting we reiterated and expressed the readiness of Iraq for the speedy and smooth resumption of (inspection) activities," Hasan said.
He said Iraqi authorities were looking forward to meeting Blix and his team again "in order to implement all the provisions of Security Council resolutions in order to lift sanctions and return the situation to normal."
In a related development, the Security Council asked its current president, Bulgarian Ambassador Stefan Tafrov, to arrange a council meeting with Blix as soon as possible. The United States, Britain and Colombia said such a session could wait, but were outvoted.
Blix has a staff of 63 in New York, some of whom could go to Baghdad quickly to analyze Iraq's chemical, biological and missile programs. Two hundred trained experts from 44 nations are on call and could be put to work within weeks.
Nuclear arms inspectors are handled by the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Commission and work in tandem with Blix's U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, known as UNMOVIC.
Under a December 1999 Security Council resolution, the inspectors have 60 days after they begin work to list key remaining disarmament issues and bring them to the Security Council for approval.
When the teams are fully operational, they have 120 days to report to the council about whether Iraq is cooperating and about their progress on any remaining banned weapons issues.
(China Daily September 18, 2002)
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