Experienced diplomat walking a dangerous tightrope

HANS BLIX, the chief UN weapons inspector, stands between war and peace in Iraq. It is his task to assess whether Saddam Hussein has complied with the disarmament demands of the international community.

The amiable 74-year-old former Swedish foreign minister is seen by some as having an almost impossible role. He has to walk a fine line between the hawkishness of Washington and the traditional trickery of Saddam Hussein's regime.

At the end of it he could be blamed for helping unleash a terrible war, or assisting a tyrant's survival. But he has approached his job calmly in keeping with his diplomatic background.

"You have to exercise common sense in what is significant and what is not," he said before the inspectors went back into Iraq. His critics have accused him of being too concerned with Iraqi sensibilities. They say Dr Blix and his staff worry too much about hurting Iraqi feelings, and are therefore liable to be deceived.

But he says the cultural sensitivity training which members of his organisation have is designed to stop them appearing obnoxious an accusation made against previous weapons inspectors.

He has said: "We are not coming to Iraq to harass or to insult or humiliate them. That's not our purpose."

Critics also point to his failure to find Saddam's secret nuclear weapons programme before the Gulf War during his time in charge of the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA).

Dr Blix admits he was deceived, but argues the rules of the time did not allow for intrusive spot checks. Everything changed after the Gulf War, when he took charge of the UN effort to uncover Iraq's nuclear weapons programme and the full extent of Baghdad's deception was discovered.