UN: The chief UN nuclear inspector said yesterday he would welcome a public statement from Iraqi President Saddam Hussein that he fully supports co-operation with the UN's hunt for Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction.
Dr Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), had hoped to meet President Saddam during his weekend trip to Baghdad, but this meeting never took place.
"It would have been useful to convey our message to the president of Iraq and it would have been helpful to hear from him a public commitment to full co-operation," Dr ElBaradei said at Athens airport en route to Vienna.
He said he had been assured of full co-operation by the Iraqi vice-president but that it would have been nice to have received it from the country's leader.
Dr ElBaradei said he was certain the vice-president's views represented the views of the entire government, but that it would have boosted confidence in Iraq were "the world and the Iraqi people to hear it directly from Saddam Hussein".
However, last night, President Saddam seemed to row back on earlier comments by his ambassador at the UN to the effect that Iraq accepted unconditionally the use of U2 spy planes.
In comments read on Iraqi television, he said that US and British planes patrolling two "no-fly" zones over the country should not launch raids on Iraq during U2 surveillance flights.
"If the world, besides America, finds that the U2 plane is important to carry out more aerial surveillance, it should tell America and Britain not to open fire at us. Otherwise, this demand would be a call for the surrender of Iraq to the American military force", President Saddam said.
Dr ElBaradie said he and the chief UN weapons inspector, Dr Hans Blix, who is in charge of the UNMOVIC teams hunting for chemical, biological and ballistic weapons, had made progress in their talks in Baghdad aimed at resolving a number of key issues.
He said the Iraqis had promised him their commitment to full and active co-operation with the weapons inspectors.
"We are cautiously optimistic, but would like to see actual progress in the next few days and weeks," he said. "We made it clear that time is critical and that ... the Security Council is quite impatient to see quick progress."
Dr Blix, meanwhile, said he saw no new evidence about Iraqi weapons during his weekend visit to Baghdad and rejected European suggestions that more inspectors would help his hunt.
He welcomed some suggestions from Iraq to help his teams searching for weapons, but said all-out Iraqi co-operation was the only way for Baghdad to prove it did not have banned weapons.
"This time they presented some papers to us in which they focused upon new issues. Not new evidence really as far as I can see, but they have nevertheless focused on real, open issues and that is welcome," Dr Blix said in Athens on his way to New York.
Asked if war was now inevitable, Dr Blix replied: "That's not for me to answer. We are to report on the progress of inspections ... to the Security Council. And it is the council, its members and Iraq ... who determine whether we get to disarmament through inspections or disarmament through arms."
Asked whether more inspectors could do a better and faster job, he replied: "The principal problem is not the number of inspectors but rather the active co-operation of the Iraqi side, as we have said many times."