Iraq has invited the chief UN weapons inspector to Baghdad for technical talks that could lead to a return of monitors after nearly four years.
Chief inspector Mr Hans Blix and UN weapons experts have been invited to Baghdad "at the earliest agreed upon time".
Iraqi foreign minister Mr Naji Sabri said his government wants the talks to review the remaining questions about Iraq's weapons programmes.
UN secretary-general Mr Kofi Annan has been trying to persuade the Iraqis to allow UN inspectors to return but three rounds of talks since March have failed to make any headway.
At the end of the last round in Vienna in July, it was agreed that technical talks would continue.
In a letter, Mr Sabri said the meeting would follow up on Mr Annan's suggestion in August 1998 "to conduct a comprehensive review... And assess the degree of Iraq's implementation of its obligations".
"We believe that this review will be an important step towards the appropriate legal and technical assessment and treatment of the issues of disarmament and to establish a solid base for the next stage of monitoring and inspection activities," he stated.
The UN imposed sanctions on Iraq after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
Under UN Security Council resolutions, sanctions can be lifted only when inspectors certify that Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons have been destroyed, along with the long-range missiles that could deliver them.
Yesterday, US President George W. Bush reaffirmed his administration's commitment to a "regime change" in Iraq.
"The policy of my government, our government, this administration, is regime change, for a reason," he said after talks with Jordan's visiting King Abdullah.
The Bush administration is suspicious that Iraq has restarted its weapons of mass destruction programs.
Russia has hailed Iraq's offer to invite the chief UN arms inspector to Baghdad for talks as an 'important step'.
"Moscow considers the Iraqi proposal as an important step in the right direction towards resolving the crisis through political and diplomatic means in the framework of UN Security Council resolutions," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.
AP