UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan reported progress during meetings with Iraq's foreign minister that ended last night and said he hopes at the next round of talks within a month Iraq will have "some positive news."
The three-day meeting focused on Iraq's disarmament and the return of UN weapons inspectors after three years, a key demand of the UN Security Council and especially the United States, which has accused Iraq of trying to rebuild its banned weapons programs and of supporting terrorism.
"We did move forward," Mr Annan told reporters after briefing the Security Council on the talks. "I hope once they've reported back ... they can take some decisions and come back to us with some positive news."
Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri called the talks "useful," saying "We continued to debate in the same spirit of cooperation and positive spirit which characterized our meeting last time in March."
AP