Baghdad - United Nations inspectors should avoid sensitive sites and presidential property in their searches for banned weapons in Iraq, the Iraqi Foreign Minister, Mr Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, said yesterday.
"They should avoid coming near sites which are part of Iraq's sovereignty and national security," he told a news conference. The minister said Iraq and the UN Special Commission (Unscom), dismantling Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, had signed agreements that such sites had to be avoided.
The United States earlier demanded unfettered access to President Saddam Hussein's palaces and other sites for UN inspectors. "Saddam Hussein has ruled 63 sites off-limits, including his palaces, to the UN Commission responsible for destroying any residual biological, chemical or nuclear weapons," the US Defence Secretary, Mr William Cohen, said on NBC television. "Those cannot be off-limits."
Reports from Iraq that Mr Saddam's regime continues to manufacture weapons are "very worrying", the British Foreign Secretary, Mr Robin Cook, warned yesterday.
He said the situation had improved over the past week as a result of the decision by Britain and the US to mobilise troops after the Iraqi government refused to allow UN arms inspectors to carry out their work. But there was "no question" of sanctions being lifted, despite Russia's call for them to be abandoned.
Mr Cook said Russia's position was partly motivated by the "very large debt owed to them by Iraq". "They can't get that repaid until sanctions have been lifted. Sanctions can only be lifted when Saddam Hussein complies with the UN resolutions, in particular when he stops trying to develop weapons of mass destruction."