UN arms experts were set yesterday to launch a week of intrusive inspections to test Baghdad's co-operation as Iraq warned they would be barred if UN sanctions were not lifted.
"An intense period of activity is going on. Many teams are out," said Ms Caroline Cross, spokeswoman in Baghdad for the UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) charged with disarming Iraq.
But as UNSCOM stepped up its operations, Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Tareq Aziz, warned yesterday in Moscow that "if they want the Special Commission to continue their inspections, the Americans must decide to stop sanctions against Iraq".
"If they insist on the sanctions, they must expect that the Special Commission will no longer work in Iraq," Mr Aziz said. Iraq's Foreign Minister, Mr Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf, meanwhile, said a team of 39 inspectors flew in on Monday. But Ms Cross said the figure was exaggerated. "It was a fairly large team, including some staff returning to Baghdad," she told AFP, declining to give an exact figure.
However, the UNSCOM staff at an arms-monitoring centre in the Iraqi capital is now back to full strength, which is around 130 staff, she added.
In New York on Monday, UNSCOM chairman Mr Richard Butler announced the resumption "in the next few hours" of surprise inspections of Iraqi sites, setting the stage for potential incidents.
The intrusive spot checks are "the last piece of this full spectrum of our work", said Mr Butler, whose inspectors were evacuated for a week last month amid fears of US-led punitive air strikes on Iraq. The surprise inspections will run until the end of this week or the beginning of next week, he said. But Ms Cross refused to confirm that such inspections had started yesterday morning.
In the past, spot checks of sites deemed "sensitive" by Iraq, such as its defence ministry, have prompted stand-offs in which the UN inspectors have been denied access. Other aspects of UNSCOM's mandate are access to documents, monitoring, interviews and visits to already declared weapons-capable sites.
The inspectors resumed work after Iraq decided on November 14th, under the threat of US and British military action, to climb down on a decision to halt all co-operation with UNSCOM.
A comprehensive review of Iraqi compliance with UN resolutions is planned once the UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, has confirmation of Baghdad's full co-operation with UNSCOM.
Mr Annan, at a Gulf summit in Abu Dhabi on Monday, gave Iraq a good mark for its co-operation so far and played down a row over its refusal to hand over more weapons documents to UNSCOM.
UN sanctions in force since Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait in August 1990 can not be lifted until UNSCOM certifies the elimination of Baghdad's weapons of mass destruction. But Baghdad insists it has disarmed and hopes the review will lead to a lifting of an oil embargo.
Baghdad newspapers kept up their attacks yesterday on Mr Butler, calling him a "mad dog" and "damned Satan".
Washington and London have warned they remain ready to use military force against Baghdad to ensure full access for the inspectors.
But following the defusing of the last crisis in mid-November, Mr Butler has been under pressure from France, Russia and Mr Annan not to provoke a new crisis, Western diplomats said. A report from Mr Butler to the Security Council, expected this month, is due to lead the council to restore its regular two-monthly sanctions reviews, which were suspended in September.