Iraq Inspections Still On Hold

Iraq and the United Nations failed to reach an agreement on resuming spot searches of suspected weapons sites after 10 days of discussions, officials said Wednesday.

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz told reporters after his fourth and final meeting with Secretary-General Kofi Annan that he would take the U.N. proposals back to Baghdad for consultations and would report back to the U.N. chief.

"We are going to weigh the situation in its entirety in Baghdad," Aziz said. He planned to leave New York later Wednesday.

But neither side announced any breakthrough in the impasse that has prevented arms experts from looking for Iraq's weapons of mass destruction for over two months.

A statement issued by Annan's office said simply that "Both sides agreed that the process of dialogue would continue."

The talks were intended to persuade Iraq to reverse its decision Aug. 5 to stop cooperating with inspectors in return for a review conducted by the Security Council of its efforts to disarm itself.

The review could force the 15-member council to acknowledge Baghdad's progress over seven years of intrusive inspections while building support for an easing of sanctions that have crippled Iraq's economy.

U.N. weapons experts must certify that Iraq has destroyed its biological, chemical and nuclear weapons and the long-range missiles used to deliver them before the council will lift sanctions imposed after Baghdad invaded Kuwait in 1990, touching off the Gulf war.

Iraq announced Aug. 5 it was ending cooperation with inspectors because the chief weapons inspector, Richard Butler, refused to certify that Iraq had destroyed its banned weapons.

The move has essentially stopped spot inspections of suspected weapons sites because U.N. inspectors must be accompanied by Iraqis.

Over four meetings during the Iraqi's visit, Annan briefed Aziz on his ideas of how the so-called "comprehensive review" might be carried out.

But there are disagreements within the council about how the review would be conducted, with the United States and Britain demanding that Iraq first reverse its Aug. 5 decision and allow inspectors to do all their work before beginning serious discussions on a comprehensive review.

Aziz said he had received assurances from British Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock, the council president, that there would be no "artificial delays" on starting the review. But he said he was still disturbed by the views of one council member for attaching "unacceptable conditions" to the proposals. He was referring to the United States.

The failed talks came amid reports that a French laboratory had corroborated U.S. findings that some Iraqi missile warheads had traces of ingredients used to make the deadly VX nerve gas.

Diplomats here have hinted of such positive results, and have suggested that France -- which generally takes a sympathetic viw towards Iraq -- was withholding the results so as to not undermine the delicate negotiations between Annan and Aziz. The French Foreign Ministry denied pressuring the lab.

Also complicating talks was a major six-month report issued Monday by Butler, the executive chairman of the U.N. Special Commission, which carries out inspections in Iraq.

In his report, Butler disagreed with part of the U.N. chief's proposal to end the impasse. Annan has proposed making inspectors responsible for proving that Iraq still has weapons of mass destruction.

In the report, Butler said the proposal, which Iraq has long demanded, would reverse the burden of disclosure that was placed on Baghdad by the Security Council in its original resolutions.

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