Progress On Iraq Inspections Seen

Iraq may be seriously considering allowing U.N. weapons inspectors back into the country after a hiatus of more than three years, an American official said Wednesday.

"I think a lot of people are telling us the Iraqis are seriously thinking about this now," said James Cunningham, the deputy U.S. representative to the United Nations.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has held two rounds of talks this year with Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri and plans a third within the next few weeks, perhaps in Vienna rather than New York.

"As long as the secretary-general and his people think it is useful to continue this discussion and they think there's a chance of bringing the Iraqis to that point for whatever reason, we think that's a useful thing to do," Cunningham said.

"So we'll see after the next round," he said, adding that no one wanted the discussions to "drag on for months."

The inspectors first went into Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War, spending seven years checking for weapons of mass destruction, a key requirement before any suspension of U.N. sanctions against Baghdad. The embargoes were imposed after Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990.

Inspectors left Baghdad ahead of U.S. and British airstrikes 3 years ago and have been barred from returning.

The sanctions can only be lifted when U.N. inspectors declare that Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs have been dismantled along with the long-range missiles to deliver them.

The United States has threatened to use force if Saddam doesn't allow inspectors to return.

Cunningham said the United States is pursuing "two tracks" toward Iraq that aren't necessarily linked: getting inspectors back into Iraq and improving the delivery of civilian goods to ordinary Iraqis by revamping the U.N. oil-for-food program, and pursuing the Bush administration's goal of getting rid of Saddam.

"Not everybody yet agrees with us on the concept of regime change, but we're working on that," he said. "We don't have any plans or timing for a specific project, military or otherwise, that has yet been put into place to effect regime change, but we're looking at a lot of options."

The Security Council voted unanimously Tuesday to revamp sanctions, capping a yearlong effort by the United States and Britain to get more humanitarian goods to the Iraqi people and try to keep weapons of mass destruction out of Saddam's hands.

The resolution allows the free flow of most civilian goods into Iraq and requires U.N. approval for delivery of civilian items with potential military use on a 332-page checklist.

Initially, the two Western allies also wanted to plug Iraqi oil smuggling routes and post new monitors along Iraq's borders. But that proposal was dropped in July after Russia — Iraq's most powerful council ally, which wants sanctions suspended — threatened a veto.

In a compromise reached in November, Russia agreed to adopt the dual-use review list. The United States, in turn, agreed to Russia's long-standing demand to discuss what steps Iraq needs to take to suspend sanctions.

On Thursday, Iraq grudgingly accepted the new changes to the sanctions — though it had wanted the restrictions lifted completely.