US and UN at odds as Iraq promises to meet deadline

IRAQI officials have promised to meet next month’s deadline for disclosing information about banned weapons as serious differences emerged between the UN and Washington over what constitutes Iraqi violations of the Security resolution.

Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Iraqi officials made the commitment during talks with chief inspector Hans Blix and other team members after they arrived in Baghdad on Monday to resume the weapons inspection programme after a four year hiatus.

“Iraq is committed to declare all it possesses regarding weapons of mass destruction, if it still has any of them ... and will also declare all of its activities in the chemical, biological and nuclear fields, even those of civilian use,” ElBaradei said.