Kuwait, Iraq make progress on war's missing, says U.N.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Kuwait and Iraq have made "very good progress" in early talks on determining the fate of hundreds of people still missing from the Gulf War, a U.N. diplomat said Saturday.

Yuli Vorontsov said the talks also encompass the case of a U.S. Navy pilot whose F-18 was shot down over Iraq on Jan. 17, 1991, the first night of the war.

More than 600 Kuwaitis remain missing since Iraq's invasion and occupation of Kuwait in 1990, which led to the Gulf War.

Vorontsov, a U.N. special envoy dealing with the issue, spoke with reporters after meeting with Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabrie late Saturday, 10 days after the first formal Kuwaiti-Iraqi discussions on missing persons from the war.

"I am also very pleased to see this first official contact between the two countries," the envoy said of that meeting in Amman, Jordan.

Those talks, set to resume Wednesday, signal a slight thaw in Iraq-Kuwait relations more than a decade after the Iraqi army was driven from the emirate by a U.S.-led coalition, and as the United States threatens a new war against Iraq to ensure it is not harboring weapons of mass destruction.

Kuwait says the Baghdad government must account for missing citizens, along with others who disappeared in Kuwait.

Iraq has insisted it is not holding detainees and said Kuwait failed to account for more than 1,000 Iraqis who disappeared at the time.

Kuwait's government has countered that it is not responsible for what happened during Iraq's occupation.

"The important thing now is to continue this progress," Vorontsov said of last week's five hours of talks. "It's a very difficult problem, and many years have passed."

In answer to a question, the Russian diplomat confirmed that the case of missing Navy pilot Scott Speicher of Jacksonville, Fla., is covered by the mandate of the talks. Speicher originally was listed as killed but later was reclassified as missing.