Iraq invites chief U.N. inspectors back to Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraq invited the chief U.N. inspectors back to Baghdad on Thursday for more talks on ways to verify Iraqi disarmament and deflect charges that Saddam Hussein's government is not cooperating fully with them.

In a letter, presidential adviser Amer al-Saadi asked Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei to return in advance of their next crucial report to the U.N. Security Council on Feb. 14. The U.N. officials conducted two days of talks with Iraqi officials here on Jan. 19-20.

Iraq's U.N. Ambassador Mohammed al-Douri delivered the invitation to Blix late Thursday and spent an hour with him discussing Baghdad's seven-page response to the chief inspector's report Monday. ElBaradei, head of the U.N. nuclear agency, was returning to Vienna from New York and was expected to receive his invitation on today.

Blix, who is in charge of chemical and biological inspections, repeated Thursday that he needs more evidence of disarmament from the Iraqis, but it was unclear whether any evidence Baghdad might offer in such talks would be enough.

"They must take the questions seriously that were posed in the report," Blix said in New York. "We would like to have responses to those questions."

In announcing the invitation, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said the talks, to be held before Feb. 10, would be aimed at "boosting cooperation and transparency and jointly discussing methods of disarmament verification."

Al-Douri said Baghdad wanted to avoid any "misunderstanding" with the inspectors.

"If we reach a better understanding and agreement on several issues, that will constitute a major achievement," he said.

Talk of a war that would short-circuit the inspection program dominated top-level meetings in Washington.

Not waiting long

In an Oval Office session with Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, President Bush warned that he will not wait long to act against Saddam, even if the United Nations refuses to back his actions.

"This is a matter of weeks not months," Bush said.

The U.S. and British governments say they will take military action against Baghdad if, in their view, it fails to disarm under U.N. resolutions prohibiting the Iraqis from engaging in chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs.

Such a U.S. offensive against Iraq might leave a huge number of civilian casualties, a 16-member team of American humanitarian specialists said in Baghdad after completing a 10-day survey throughout Iraq.

They cited a confidential U.N. document projecting a worst-case scenario of up to 500,000 Iraqis killed, wounded or stricken by disease, particularly if U.S. bombs target Iraq's electricity grid, crippling water, sanitation, public health and food distribution systems.

The disruption of water and sewage systems after the Americans bombed the power grid in the 1991 Gulf War was blamed for thousands of subsequent Iraqi deaths by disease in the 1990s. International trade sanctions, spearheaded by Washington, also eroded Iraqi health and other living standards.

In his State of the Union address Tuesday, Bush said an American invasion would "bring to the Iraqi people food and medicines and supplies and freedom."

On Thursday, Iraq's health minister, Omed Medhat Mubarak, rejected that.

"How can President Bush improve health conditions of Iraqis when America was the reason behind the deterioration in the health of Iraqis from all walks of life?" he asked.

In other developments Thursday:

-- Weapons inspection teams took a step toward long-term monitoring in Iraq, installing the first equipment to sample the air for clues to banned weapons work.

-- Two more Iraqi experts refused to grant secret interviews to U.N. investigators in the hunt for Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction. To date, no Iraqi is known to have submitted to an interview without the presence of an Iraqi government official or other witness.

The refusal of Iraqi scientists to submit to private interviews with U.N. arms monitors has been one trouble spot in the inspections, which resumed in November after a four-year gap.

Iraqi officials say that under an agreement reached Jan. 20 with the chief U.N. inspectors, they are encouraging scientists to submit to unmonitored questioning. But they all feel that having a witness would protect them against possible later distortion of their answers, the officials say.

The U.N. inspectors, on the other hand, believe scientists would be more candid in interviews without representatives of Iraq's authoritarian government listening in.

After their talks Jan. 19-20, the inspectors and Iraqi officials announced a 10-point agreement to clear up some procedural roadblocks to more effective inspections.

A week later, however, Blix reported to the Security Council that, although Baghdad had been cooperative on practical matters, it did not show "genuine acceptance" of the disarmament demands because it was not offering sufficient evidence to clear up old discrepancies, by verifying its destruction of some chemical and biological arms or components.

After its defeat in 1991, Iraq was forbidden by U.N. resolutions to maintain programs for weapons of mass destruction. Inspectors from 1991 to 1998 certified the destruction of the bulk of its chemical and biological weapons, and dismantled a program to build nuclear arms. The new inspections are intended to try to resolve discrepancies and gaps in the record.

Developments in the Iraq crisis:

President Bush, moving toward a decision on war with Iraq, said he will give diplomacy "weeks not months" and that the United States would welcome Saddam Hussein going into exile. "Should he choose to leave the country, along with other henchmen who have tortured ... Iraqi people, we will welcome that, of course," Bush said.

Eight European nations, in an article published in leading world newspapers, expressed deep gratitude to the United States and wrote that U.S.-European ties "must not become a casualty" of Iraq's attempts to "threaten world security." The article was not signed by France or Germany.

Secretary of State Colin Powell is not bringing "a smoking gun" against Iraq to the United Nations next week but will have circumstantial evidence to make a convincing case that Iraq is hiding weapons of mass destruction, a U.S. official said Thursday.

Jordan has agreed to allow some U.S. troops to be stationed there, including some to operate air defense missile systems and others for potential search-and-rescue missions from Jordanian airfields. American warplanes also would be allowed to pass through Jordanian airspace during an Iraq war, according to U.S. and Jordanian officials, who discussed the arrangement on condition of anonymity.

-- Two more Iraqi specialists refused requests to submit to private interviews in the U.N. search for signs of banned weapons in Iraq, raising the number to 15, the U.N. inspection agency reported.

-- Iraq invited chief U.N. inspectors Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei to return to Baghdad for more talks before their next report to the U.N. Security Council on Feb. 14

-- U.S. humanitarian specialists in Baghdad said a long-term U.S. offensive might result in half a million Iraqi civilian casualties including those who succumb to disease if U.S. bombed Iraq's infrastructure.

-- Bush directed that up to $15 million be made available for helping the refugee crisis that may arise from war.