Baghdad announces return of Blix, ElBaradei for crucial talks

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The chief U.N. weapons inspectors will return to Baghdad on Feb. 8 for last-minute talks before their next Security Council report on the hunt for banned weapons in Iraq, Iraqi and U.N. officials said Saturday.

Arms monitors Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei are seeking concessions to speed their investigators' day-to-day work -- in particular removing obstacles to U.N. reconnaissance flights and to private interviews with Iraqi scientists.

Iraq's U.N. ambassador, Mohamed al-Douri, said in New York the two sides would be "discussing all the outstanding issues, including interviews with Iraqi scientists."

But neither al-Douri nor Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz in Baghdad, who also reported the planned talks, said anything about new proposals to end those deadlocks.

A pivotal report by Blix to the Security Council last Monday criticized the Iraqis as not having cooperated fully -- by volunteering more information -- in the first two months of arms inspections.

The inspectors' next report, on Feb. 14, could swing the diplomatic balance toward or away from military action against Iraq, the "last resort" threatened by the United States and Britain.

The Iraqis on Thursday invited Blix and ElBaradei back to Baghdad, just 10 days after they completed discussions here over practical problems in the inspections.

The chief inspectors responded with a letter to the Iraqi government proposing talks Feb. 8-9, but also asking for what Fleming called "signals of progress" before the talks.

Surveillance conditions

Ewen Buchanan, spokesman for the U.N. inspectors in New York, said U.N. officials assume the Iraqis accept the purpose of the meeting as laid out in the letter. "If they do not, we would expect to hear from them soon," he said.

The disagreement over surveillance flights involves a U.N. plan to use American U-2 spy planes to fly over Iraq in support of inspections.

The Iraqis say they would allow such flights as long as the United States and Britain halted air patrols over southern and northern Iraq while the spy planes were in the air. This way, they say, Iraqi anti-aircraft batteries would not mistake the reconnaissance aircraft for U.S. and British warplanes and fire on them.

On the second issue, Iraqi scientists have uniformly rejected U.N. requests that they submit to private interviews about possible weapons programs, insisting that witnesses be present during the questioning, often Iraqi government officials.

The inspectors believe the specialists will not be candid at interviews monitored by representatives of Iraq's authoritarian government.

A series of U.N. resolutions since Iraq's defeat by a U.S.-led coalition in the 1991 Gulf War prohibit any programs for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Thousands of such Iraqi weapons were destroyed under a previous U.N. inspection program in the 1990s. New inspections began in November.

Despite Iraq's denials, and without presenting proof, the United States and Britain insist Saddam's regime is hiding banned weaponry and say they will disarm Iraq by force if necessary.

On Friday, President Bush was dismissive of the idea of new U.N. talks with the Iraqis, calling it another attempt at deception by Saddam. "The idea of calling inspectors in to negotiate is a charade," Bush told reporters at the White House.

The United States has marshaled nearly 90,000 military personnel in the Persian Gulf region, and the number may soon double. In one of the latest deployments, 1,800 soldiers in the U.S. Army's 1st Infantry Division began shipping out Friday from their bases in southern Germany, a division vanguard apparently bound for the Gulf.

On Iraqi state television Saturday, Saddam was shown giving encouragement to his military commanders. "I am your leader and I am confident that you will defeat the enemy," he told them.

Broadcasts of Saddam offering advice to his generals have become standard fair as pressure has mounted from the buildup of U.S. and British forces in the region.

Earlier in the day, a handful of American activists gathered in a candlelight vigil for peace Saturday at Baghdad's Amiriya bomb shelter, where more than 400 civilians were killed by a U.S. missile strike in 1991.

"We hope that there might still be time for people to say, 'Stop! Wait!" said Kathy Kelly, leader of the Iraq Peace Team. She said a U.S. attack would amount to "the world's largest firing squad aimed at civilians in their crosshairs."

An impromptu peace protest occurred at Baghdad University after U.N. arms monitors arrived Saturday morning to inspect the biology department, presumably for signs of banned weapons research. About 150 students streamed out of classrooms with hastily written placards, some reading, "We Want Peace" and "No Blood For Oil."

U.N. inspectors also made unannouced visits to a factory north of Baghdad that produces guidance systems for missiles and to a missile fuel plant south of the capital.

After two months and hundreds of inspections, the U.N. monitors have yet to report finding major violations of the U.N. weapons ban.

Secretary of State Colin Powell is scheduled to go before the Security Council on Wednesday to present what is billed as fresh evidence of hidden weapons programs.

A top Iraqi official, Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, reiterated on Iraqi television Saturday Baghdad's contention that it no longer has such weapons.

"If they have evidence, why don't they give it to the inspectors?" he said.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: Associated Press correspondent Dafna Linzer at the United Nations contributed to this report.