Iraq seemed to be taking a more conciliatory attitude last night in the dispute over United Nations weapons inspection teams, but the US military build-up in the area is continuing.
The official Iraqi newsagency, INA, reported President Saddam Hussein as saying his country was not seeking a confrontation with the United States and wants to reach a solution to the UN crisis through dialogue.
"Iraq is not looking for confrontation with the American administration and if it is possible to reach through dialogue a solution in which the Security Council fulfills its commitments towards Iraq, we will be happy," Mr Saddam said during a cabinet meeting, according to the agency.
His deputy prime minister, Mr Tariq Aziz, also signalled a less bellicose attitude in an interview with the French newspaper, Le Figaro, in which he suggested that giving equal representation on the teams to all five permanent members of the Security Council would be a way out of the standoff between Baghdad and the Security Council. The council's permanent members are the US, France, Russia, China and Britain.
"We ask the Security Council to create a committee of experts whose impartiality was not in question," Mr Aziz told the French daily. "If this formula were accepted, we would have no objection to the return of the American inspectors whom we have expelled."
The interview was conducted while Mr Aziz was in the French capital on a two-day stopover between a trip to the United Nations and a five-nation tour of Arab states.
However his language describing the US as "a giant that has gone crazy" showed that Iraq is not exactly suing for peace. Meanwhile, a U-2 spy plane flight over Iraq, which might invite retaliation from the ground, was believed to be imminent in Washington, and the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington continued its three-day journey to join a fleet of US naval vessels in the Persian Gulf.
President Bill Clinton has reinforced the naval presence in the Gulf while consulting allies on diplomatic ways out of the confrontation. Over the weekend he spoke by telephone to the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, the French President, Mr Jacques Chirac, and the Russian President, Mr Boris Yeltsin, to reinforce their support.
A spokesman for Mr Clinton said the President and Mr Yeltsin discussed "the importance of sending a clear signal to Saddan. . . that the international community is speaking with one voice".
The United Nations reserved the right to use military force against Iraq, but France, as well as Russia, China and Egypt have said they oppose any use of force.
However, Mr Chirac, said yesterday that Iraq's stance in the confrontation was unacceptable and backed efforts to end the standoff.
Kuwait, whose invasion by Iraq sparked off the 1990-91 Gulf War, yesterday stated that it had no desire to see military intervention against Baghdad. The Kuwaiti Foreign Minister, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah, said in Cairo that his country hoped President Saddam Hussein would "resort to wisdom" to settle the dispute. The sheikh also said that there was no possibility of reconciliation between Kuwait and Iraq while Mr Saddam remained in power.
Iraq has been under tough UN sanctions since its 1990 invasion of Kuwait. It says 1.2 million people have died from lack of food, medicines or health care.
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