It was not too late to avoid war on Iraq, the UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, said yesterday but Baghdad needed to heed Security Council pleas to cooperate more wholeheartedly with arms inspectors.
Mr Annan added that he had no intention to going to Baghdad to deliver his message personally, saying chief weapons inspectors Drs Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei already planned to do that this weekend.
The UN leader spoke to reporters after US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, briefed the Security Council on what Washington saw as proof that Iraq was concealing evidence of illegal arms programmes from the inspectors.
"I think the message today has been clear. Everyone wants Iraq to be pro-active in cooperating with the inspectors and fulfil the demands of the international community. And if they do that, we can avoid a war," Mr Annan said.
"US officials have said all along that they do not believe that war is inevitable, provided that Iraq complies. Even at this stage, they are not saying peace is out. I am not going to Baghdad, but the inspectors are going and they should be listened to," he added.
Dr Blix and Dr ElBaradei were heading to Baghdad at Iraq's invitation, in search of signs of greater cooperation and data that could fill gaps in what the inspectors know about Iraqi weapons programmes.
Their next report to the Security Council on their disarmament efforts has been set for February 14th.
Following Mr Powell's presentation, Cameroonian External Relations Minister, Mr Francois Xavier Ngoubeyou, called on Mr Annan to go to Baghdad himself to impress upon President Saddam Hussein the need to improve cooperation.
But Mr Annan said his message, were he to go to Iraq, would be identical to Drs Blix and ElBaradei's. He said it was up to the Security Council to decide how long inspections should go on, based on the inspectors' reports. Their last report, delivered to the council on January 27th, provided ammunition both to those who want the inspections to continue and to those who say time is running out for Baghdad.
"Obviously the report the inspectors brought to the council was not black and white. It was grey, and that was to be expected, given the nature of their work," Mr Annan said.
"The council will have to make a judgment at some stage as to whether Iraq is performing, is cooperating, or is not and they should declare a material breach. But the decision is up to the council, not the inspectors," he said.
UN disarmament experts inspected 10 suspect sites in the Baghdad area yesterday, targeting rocket facilities and warehouses at a former nuclear site, their spokesman Mr Hiro Ueki said.
Rocket experts headed to the al-Mutassem and al-Fateh companies while nuclear specialists toured the al-Shaikhali warehouse at a former nuclear facility in al-Tuwaitha, said Mr Ueki, spokesman for both the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Also inspected were the laser centre at the Baghdad state university, a food research centre on al-Mughrabi street and the al-Naaman company at the al-Rashid military complex.
A chemical team visited Al-Riyadh stores, while two UNMOVIC multi-disciplinary teams, based in Baghdad and in Mosul, both inspected cement production facilities.
Mr Ueki added that UNMOVIC unsuccessfully sought another private interview with an Iraqi on Tuesday evening. - (Reuters/AFP)