Iraqi officials were to meet with UN arms experts in Vienna on Monday to discuss resuming inspections, under the shadow of US threats to enforce disarmament if necessary.
With Washington intent on giving Baghdad just seven days to agree to US demands, Hans Blix, chairman of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), was to get down to the logistics of the resumption of arms checks after a gap of four years.
The talks were to open at 10:30am. (0830 GMT) on Monday.
Also present will be representatives of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which is in charge of inspecting for nuclear weapons programs.
UNMOVIC looks for chemical and biological weapons as well as missiles.
Blix last met Iraqi officials on September 17, the day after President Saddam Hussein agreed to allow weapons inspectors back without conditions.
Blix said he hoped to have an advance party in Iraq on October 15, and intends to report back to the world body around October 3 on the upshot of the Vienna talks.
IAEA representative Mark Gwozdecky said it would take ”weeks” once the UN experts arrived in Iraq actually to begin inspections.
He said the talks in Vienna would focus on practical details, such as visas, office space, landing rights and providing security for the inspectors.
In Washington, the White House insisted on Saturday that Baghdad must comply with any new UN resolution aimed at stripping Iraq of weapons of mass destruction.
But Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan ruled out Iraqi cooperation on a new resolution. ”The position on the inspectors has been decided, and any new measure intended to harm Iraq is unacceptable,” he said.
A US draft resolution under negotiation would give Iraq just seven days to declare all its weapons of mass destruction programs and 23 additional days to open up totally to UN inspections or face military strikes.
Under threat of possible unilateral US military action, Iraq agreed on September 16 to allow UN weapons inspectors to return ”without conditions” following a break of nearly four years.
Anti-war sentiment has sparked protest in cities across the globe, including a huge rally in London over the weekend with members of parliament and public figures that organisers said drew 400 000 into the streets. Police were more conservative, pegging the number at 150 000.
In Moscow, US envoy Marc Grossman, accompanied by British Foreign Office envoy Peter Ricketts met Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, who said weapons inspectors should return as quickly as possible to Iraq.
Grossman, US under secretary of state for political affairs, gave no indication whether his team had made progress in securing Russian approval for a Security Council resolution granting the United States the right to attack Iraq should Baghdad not fully comply.
Traditionally an Iraqi ally, Moscow has put up heavy resistance to US and British diplomatic pressure, arguing that no new UN resolution is necessary following Saddam’s agreement to allow UN arms inspectors unfettered access.
France on Friday had also rebuffed Grossman’s efforts to gain support for the hardline draft, with President Jacques Chirac restating his opposition to any UN resolution that allows automatic armed recourse against Iraq. – Sapa-AFP