UN move is pretext for US attack, says Iraq

THE Iraqi government protested to the UN on Sunday that the small print behind its mission will give the US a pretext to attack.

The protest came as inspectors readied a crucial new round in the weapons hunt.

The new UN resolution on weapons inspections could turn "inaccurate statements among thousands of pages of required Iraqi reports into a supposed justification for military action", Foreign Minister Naji Sabri complained in a letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

"There is pre-meditation to target Iraq, whatever the pretext," Mr Sabri said.

The foreign minister's lengthy letter, a point-by-point commentary on the Security Council resolution, was not expected to affect the inspections, which resume on Wednesday after a four-year suspension.

Iraq had accepted the resolution in a November 13 letter from Sabri to Annan.

Preparations moved steadily ahead on Baghdad's outskirts on Sunday, where technicians at the UN inspection centre worked to establish a hot-line connection with liaisons in the Iraqi government.

The first working group of 18 inspectors arrives on Monday on a flight from a UN base in Cyprus. Their numbers are expected to swell by year-end to between 80 and 100 at a time in Iraq.

In seven year's work after the 1991 Gulf War, UN experts destroyed large amounts of chemical and biological weapons and longer-range missiles forbidden to Iraq by UN resolutions, and dismantled Iraq's nuclear weapons program before it could build a bomb.

The inspections were suspended amid disputes over UN access to Iraqi sites and Iraqi complaints of American spying via the UN operation.

A new focus on Iraq by the administration of US President George W Bush led to the adoption of Resolution 1441 and the dispatch of inspectors back to Iraq with greater powers of unrestricted access to suspected weapons sites.

Washington alleges Iraq retains some prohibited weapons and may be producing others.

The resolution, adopted unanimously on November 7, demands the Iraqis give up any chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, or face serious consequences.

It requires Iraq to submit an accounting by December 8 of its weapons programs, as well as of chemical, biological and nuclear programs it claims are peaceful.