United Nations weapons inspectors, who left Iraq ahead of the US-led invasion last year, are ready to discuss their return to Baghdad with the new Iraqi government, the UN nuclear watchdog said yesterday.
Speaking to reporters after meeting Russian Foreign Minister Mr Sergei Lavrov, Dr Mohamed ElBaradei said the two men had agreed that UN inspectors should return to finish the task of verifying whether or not Saddam Hussein had dismantled his banned weapons programmes before the war.
The US formally transferred sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government yesterday, formally ending a 14-month occupation two days earlier than expected.
"The Russian view is that the IAEA and UNMOVIC should go back and finish the job, and we discussed the possibility of an ongoing monitoring and verification in Iraq," Dr ElBaradei said.
The UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) handles nuclear inspections, while the UNMOVIC agency was charged with finding Iraq's chemical, biological and ballistic arsenals.
"I believe that now our talks will be with the Iraqi government and with the Security Council," Dr ElBaradei said.
He said consistent monitoring would be necessary to ensure post-war Iraq did not revive its weapons of mass destruction programmes.
"In light of the current unstable situation in Iraq - and we know that they still have the know-how [to produce WMD\] - it is prudent to have a period of ongoing monitoring and verification in Iraq," Dr ElBaradei said. The Russians agreed with this position, he added.
Earlier this month, a UN Security Council resolution on Iraq called for the Council to revisit the mandates of UN weapons inspectors, which diplomats close to the UN agency said was the first step towards the inspectors' return.