Saddam's Human Shields

U.N. weapons inspectors, currently scheduled to give a preliminary report on Iraq on Jan. 27, say they need more time to finish their work.

"We intend to ask the U.N. Security Council to extend the mandate by several months in order to complete the work,'' says International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohammed ElBaradei, commenting in Moscow, where he talked with Russian officials about both Iraq and the escalating war of words with North Korea over nuclear development.

"We intend to intensify work in Iraq over the next weeks and months,'' said ElBaradei of the inspection mission in Iraq.

He'll be heading back there on Sunday, along with chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix.

Pressure on Iraq continues to build, with an inspection of its largest presidential palace, and an expected new demand by the U.N. to interview Iraqi scientists, but Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is not without his sympathizers.

CBS Evening News Anchor Dan Rather reports that tribal leaders from neighboring Jordan have arrived in Baghdad, to offer Iraq up to 100,000 volunteers to act as human shields in the event of war.

The Pentagon was quick to react to that development, and issued a swift statement containing a clear message for the Iraqi government.

"It is illegal under the International Law of Armed Conflict to use noncombatants as a means of shielding potential targets, and Iraqi action to do so would not only violate this law, but be considered a war crime in any conflict," said General Richard Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

Saddam remains defiant. "We don't want war by choice but if it's imposed on us, we shall fight," said the Iraqi leader, addressing the visiting delegation of Jordanian tribal leaders.

Myers is heading to the region himself on Monday - a trip to Turkey where he hopes to convince reluctant government officials to allow U.S. troops to use military bases if it is decided to attack Iraq.

Britain is also continuing preparations for the possibility of war. A Royal Navy helicopter carrier with 300 marines made final preparations Wednesday to join the build up of British forces.

Diplomatic efforts also continue, with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Saltanov the latest to arrive in Baghdad. "We want to avoid any military scenarios," Saltanov told reporters, as he settled into the Iraqi capital.

In Baghdad, CBS News has learned that U.N. - as part of its search for weapons of mass destruction - is planning to demand that Iraq hand over at least two of its scientists for interviews that would be done outside of the presence of Iraqi government officials.

U.S. National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice, in a private meeting with Blix, has strongly urged that the interviewing of the scientists should furthermore take place in a country other than Iraq.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made the same point Wednesday, in public, and more bluntly, in comments at the Pentagon.

"It's terribly important for them (the inspectors) to take people - knowledgeable people, scientists, technicians people who have been involved in weapons of mass destruction programs and get them out of the country, with their families - so that they can speak honestly and tell the truth," warned Rumsfeld.

In an interview with Dan Rather, Rumsfeld also said he believes it is possible that at some point, Saddam Hussein might seek exile.

"History suggests that people do in fact, if they make a judgment that the game's up and it's over and they've run their string, do on occasion leave," said Rumsfeld. "Whether this particular individual will do it, I don't know. What will happen is at some point it will become clear that he will have to disarm and if that's the case then he'll have to make a judgment."

Iraqi officials are seething over the U.N. weapons inspectors' visit Wednesday to Saddam Hussein's largest presidential palace - a compound built back in the 1950s along the Tigris River - and a place where he has lived.

Saddam often uses the palace for receiving ambassadors and foreign visitors.

It's not known whether the Iraqi president was somewhere around when the inspectors arrived, attracted, they say by satellite images of the area revealing the existence of two small fortress-like buildings that are being called both "suspicious" and "of interest."

Weapons inspectors Wednesday spent four hours searching buildings in the presidential palace compound, after initially being kept waiting at the gate for 15 minutes.

The presidential palace inspection was the second at a presidential site since the inspectors resumed the search for weapons of mass destruction in November. The Iraqis did not try to block the inspectors' visit Dec. 3 to Baghdad's al-Sajoud palace, but protested the next day that it was unnecessary.

Saddam has dozens of palaces across the country, many of which are not used for public purposes or are idle much of the time. Iraqi officials resisted palace searches in the 1990s, calling them an offense to the country's sovereignty. But the current inspection regime, armed with a stringent U.N. Security Council resolution, allows snap inspections of palaces.

The Security Council, has warned Iraq of "serious consequences" if it fails to cooperate fully with the inspectors.

The inspectors are trying to determine whether Iraq maintains weapons of mass destruction banned under resolutions that were approved after U.S.-led forces drove Iraqi troops from Kuwait in the 1991 Gulf War. Iraq insists it holds no such weapons.

However, the Iraqi claim is disputed by the United States and Britain, which have threatened to disarm Saddam by force.

Blix says the experts need months to finish their work. Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei, chief of the U.N. nuclear agency, are due to report their findings to the Security Council on Jan. 27.

Iraq called the visit a "clearly provocative step to harass important national security sites" and said the inspection had "no relation at all to so-called disarmament."

The inspectors stayed longer than expected inside the complex known as the Old Palace because the Iraqi official who had keys to four safes was not there and took two hours to arrive, said Dimitri Perricos, chief of operations for the inspection team.

Perricos did not say what the inspectors were looking for, but added that they did not take away anything from the safes. The quarter-hour delay in entering the compound, he added, was because Iraqi officials had to seek permission from "higher authority" to allow them in.

"It was fine. We got permission at the end. We did not lose anything because the site we wanted to inspect was under observation as we waited," Perricos, who led the team that inspected the presidential compound, told a news briefing.

In a statement, the Foreign Ministry said the inspectors left their Baghdad headquarters without prior notice, but that "luckily" two cars with government employees who act as liaisons were available to escort them to the palace. It said more employees had to join the convoy hurriedly, breaking traffic laws.

"This caused much disappointment and confusion," the statement added.

In addition to the palace visit, inspectors spent more than three hours Wednesday at a private farm about 13 miles southwest of Baghdad.

Inspectors have not found any conclusive evidence to support U.S. allegations that Saddam is still holding weapons of mass destruction.