Curve Ball In Weapons Inspection

Iraq reserves the right to end cooperation with U.N. weapons inspections if it deems Washington is manipulating them, the Iraqi inspections chief said, clouding prospects of the high-stakes U.N. missions before they even resume.

The Iraqi warning, made in the face of threatened U.S. military action, raises the possibility that old problems would haunt any new U.N. inspections to ensure Iraq can no longer produce weapons of mass destruction.

Meanwhile, Iraq's parliament met in an emergency session Saturday, but said nothing about a resolution by the U.S. Congress giving President Bush authority to use force against Iraq.

In yet another possible complication, an Iraqi letter to the U.N. inspectors on Friday ignored a U.N. request to confirm technical agreements reached with the United Nations to pave the way for the return of inspectors.

The two-page Iraqi letter to the chief weapons inspectors, obtained by The Associated Press, also included a reference to future consultations. The United States seized on that reference to accuse Baghdad of wanting "to delay and deceive."

But Iraqi Ambassador Mohammed Al-Douri rejected the accusation and said his country was dealing in good faith.

Iraq was responding to an Oct. 8 letter from inspectors detailing agreements reached in Vienna, Austria, earlier this month on the resumption of inspections. The U.N. letter asked Iraq to confirm its acceptance of the agreements — as Security Council members requested — but the Iraqi letter didn't mention them.

Instead, Iraq confirmed its acceptance of a joint press statement issued at the end of the Vienna talks on Oct. 1, a briefing on those talks to the Security Council by chief inspector Hans Blix on Oct. 3 and its "full readiness" to receive an advance team on Oct. 19.

The letter, signed by Gen. Amir Al-Saadi, an adviser to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein who headed the Iraqi delegation at the Vienna talks, clearly fell short of the unambiguous acceptance that Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, had hoped for.

"We are not surprised that once again the Iraqis want to delay and deceive," said Richard Grenell, spokesman for U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte. "We've had 16 resolutions and 11 years of playing this game, and its time the Security Council take action."

Al-Douri said Iraq had "no problems" with the letter from Blix and ElBaradei and had sent "a very positive" response.

"Our letter is a positive letter, is a positive answer to what Mr. Blix asked us in his letter," Al-Douri told reporters.

The Iraqi letter arrived as the Security Council remained at serious odds over how to proceed with future inspections.

The United States and Britain want to empower inspectors to go anywhere at anytime while gaining authorization to use military force if Iraq doesn't comply. France, Russia and China — the other veto-wielding permanent members of the 15-member council — want Iraq to be given a chance to cooperate before authorizing military action.

French diplomats indicated Friday that their opposition still stands and said a possible U.S. compromise to threaten Iraq with "consequences" didn't solve the problem. In addition, the French push for a two-resolution process seemed to be gaining steam.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Friday he believed there was support for the French approach.

"I think the member states want a two-stage approach: send in the inspectors (and) if they get into trouble, if it fails, come back and we will pass the second resolution."

Russian Ambassador Sergey Lavrov said Russia also wasn't yielding on its opposition to ideas in the U.S. proposal, saying it would not support a resolution that contained "any provision for the automatic use of force."

Several council members said, however, that the U.S. Congress' resolution authorizing use of force, sent to the White House on Friday, would likely expedite negotiations in New York.

Secretary of State Colin Powell, in a National Public Radio interview, said Friday that the Congressional resolution shows a unity of purpose and would help his efforts to get a tough resolution through the U.N. Security Council.

He said President George W. Bush's administration still opposed a two-resolution approach because that would give Iraq a chance to frustrate the Security Council.

Powell said he hopes a war could be avoided, but "there should be little optimism" that Saddam Hussein is going to comply with U.N. demands.

In their letter to Iraq, Blix and ElBaradei wrote that a 1998 agreement preventing inspectors from carrying out surprise inspections at presidential sites might change.

But in his response, Al-Saadi reiterated Iraq's "initiative" to resume inspections, based on existing Security Council resolutions and said he welcomed additional consultations with inspectors should they face future difficulties.

Under sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, U.N. inspectors must certify that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction have been destroyed. Iraq has banned inspectors from returning for nearly four years, but agreed late last month to let them come back.