Iraq says there will be limits on weapon inspectors

IRAQ’S vice president yesterday said there would be limits on the UN weapons investigation, though the top inspector says Baghdad has agreed to unannounced checks even on Saddam Hussein's “special” sites.

The question of unannounced checks on sites like Saddam’s palaces, an issue that helped derail inspections in the 1990s, “is settled by the resolution. It wasn’t even discussed,” chief weapons inspector Hans Blix said yesterday after departing Baghdad at the end of a two-day visit inaugurating a new UN oversight program, four years after the last inspections.

The Swedish ex-diplomat was referring to the new UN Security Council resolution describing the inspections as a “final opportunity” for Iraq to meet its post-Gulf War obligations to give up any weapons of mass destruction. In accepting the resolution, Iraq accepted full and unfettered inspections. President Bush has threatened military action if the Iraqis don’t disarm.

The US was contacting allies in search of support if military action is required. In Copenhagen yesterday, Danish lawmakers approved the participation of Danish soldiers and equipment in any international force in Iraq, if necessary.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard said Australian defence officials had held contingency talks with their US counterparts over a possible strike against Baghdad.

He did not describe what any Australian contribution might be.

In London, British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said the US has requested British troops to join a possible war on Iraq.

Hoon said Britain had not yet decided on its response.

Meanwhile, US warplanes bombed three air defence communications facilities in southern Iraq yesterday, a day after Defence Secretary Donald H Rumsfeld said Washington would immediately respond to attacks on American and British warplanes.

Rumsfeld said the US would retaliate in such circumstances involving the patrolling of no-fly zones regardless of whether the UN views the shootings as violations of UN resolutions.

US warplanes struck at the Iraqi defence facilities after Iraqi air defences fired surface-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft artillery at US and British planes.

The Security Council has never specifically approved the flights over northern and southern Iraq, which Baghdad considers violations of its sovereignty.

Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan yesterday said that Iraq would fully co-operate with weapons inspectors, but he vowed to prevent them from gathering “intelligence”.