Presidential palace searched as inspectors have free run

INTERNATIONAL inspectors arrived at one of Saddam Hussein’s presidential palaces yesterday and demanded and received quick entry, in an early test of new powers to hunt for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

A key Iraqi official said, meanwhile, that the Baghdad government, in a long-awaited declaration later this week, will reaffirm its position that it no longer has such weapons.

The UN weapons monitors found spectacle and opulence inside the sprawling, riverside Al-Sajoud palace. But there was no word that they found anything else.