Saddam agrees to let in weapons inspectors

BIDDING to head off an attack by the US, Saddam Hussein yesterday accepted unconditionally a tough new UN resolution that will see weapons inspectors return to the country for the first time in nearly four years.

Iraqi ambassador to the UN, Mohammed Al-Douri, said the government's letter to the UN reiterates that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction.

"The letter says that Iraq accepts the resolution, and accepts the return of inspectors," the ambassador said at the UN's New York headquarters.