The UN Secretary-General Mr Kofi Annan is to meet Iraq's foreign minister next month for two days of talks, urging the return of arms inspectors.
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Mr Kofi Annan
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A spokesman for Mr Annan said he and Mr Naji Sabri will meet on April 18th and 19th in New York.
The two met for one day on March 7th, in their first high-level talks in a year.
The spokesman said Mr Annan is "hoping for substantive and focused discussions, specifically of the return of arms inspectors to Iraq".
Baghdad is under sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, which cannot be lifted until UN inspectors certify that Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons have been eliminated along with the long-range missiles to deliver them.
Iraq has refused to let inspectors back in, insisting it has complied with the resolutions and demanding that sanctions be lifted. The inspectors left Baghdad in December 1998 ahead of US and British air strikes.
AP