IRAQ: A United Nations weapons inspection team will be in Iraq by October 15th and inspectors will almost immediately visit selected weapons sites to test Iraqi willingness to co-operate, according to diplomatic sources at the United Nations in New York.
This emerged from a private briefing of the 15 Security Council members with the chief UN weapons inspector, Dr Hans Blix, yesterday evening.
Meanwhile, Russia appears ready to drop its objections to US demands for a tough new UN Security Council resolution on Iraq, following a meeting at the White House yesterday between President Bush and Russia's Foreign and Defence Ministers.
Before the meeting, Mr Bush called the Russian President, Mr Vladimir Putin, to press the US case against Iraq.
The Russian Foreign Minister, Mr Igor Ivanov, declined afterwards to repeat Russian's reservations about a new resolution, saying: "We agreed to pursue an exchange of views on how to make the inspectors more effective."
The price of Russian support for the US position may be a toning down of American criticism of any military action Moscow takes against Georgia over the presence of Chenchen rebels.
"We explained that Georgian authorities have direct ties to terrorism," the Russian Defence Minister, Mr Sergei Ivanov, said after leaving the White House.
The US shared Russia's concerns, he said.
The US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, told Congress on Thursday that the US would oppose efforts to send inspectors back to Iraq before passing a resolution that strengthened the inspectors' mandate and imposed tough new conditions.
The US and Britain are working on the text of a new resolution, which would be submitted to the Security Council early next week, possibly by Tuesday, diplomats said.
There is a general acceptance among most of the 10 elected Security Council members, including Ireland, that a fresh resolution may not be legally necessary but that it may be politically necessary, because of US and UK pressure, diplomatic sources said.
If a new resolution is supported by only two of the five Security Council members, with Russia, France and China abstaining, then the US and the UK would need the support of seven of the 10 elected members, of whom only Syria is certain to vote against.
Ireland has not publicly stated its position but is expected to look at any new proposal on its merits.
Mr Blix told the council members that he would report back after meeting Iraqi officials on October 3rd to discuss arrangements for the return of inspectors under Resolution No 1284 passed in December, 1999.
An advance team could then be in Baghdad by October 15th, he said. The UN inspectors would need eight weeks to get the operation fully staffed, retrieve vehicles abandoned four years ago when inspectors left, and import sensitive equipment.
After that, in mid-December, the clock would start ticking for a 60-day period of inspections to list key disarmament tasks, followed by 120 days of monitoring and verification.
However, Mr Blix will deliver a report on December 1st to the Security Council under an old mandate to produce quarterly reports on Iraq disarmament.
Both Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress welcomed a draft proposal that Mr Bush offered on Thursday for a congressional resolution to authorise the President to "use all means", including military force, against Iraq.
The Senate Republican leader, Mr Trent Lott, said both the House and Senate could vote on the resolution as early as the first week in October before lawmakers go home to campaign for the November 5th election.
The Senate Majority Leader, Mr Tom Daschle, agreed that "there is absolutely no difference of opinion with regard to the threat that Saddam Hussein poses", but said Democrats wanted some changes in the proposal's wording.