UN monitors inspect Baghdad palace

The United Nations arms monitors in Iraq today inspected a presidential palace in the heart of Baghdad.

It was the international experts’ second visit to one of President Saddam Hussein’s homes since inspections resumed last year.

The monitors, who are looking for evidence of weapons of mass destruction, visited the Old Palace in the al-Karadah district of Baghdad.

It was built after the fall of the Iraqi monarchy in 1958 and was bombed twice during 1991 Gulf War.

It was not immediately known whether Saddam was at the palace, which overlooks the Tigris river.

Iraqi security officials kept reporters outside the palace’s cement-coloured walls.

Journalists peering through the white metal gates could not see the palace building, only UN and Iraqi vehicles parked along a long road lined by palm trees.

Inspectors visited the al-Sajoud palace in Baghdad on December 3. The Iraqis did not obstruct that visit, but protested the following day that it had been unnecessary.

The inspectors are trying to verify Iraq’s claims it has eliminated the country’s nuclear, biological and chemical weapons and long range missiles, as well as the programmes that produced them.

The UN experts were granted immediate access to the palace and one of their cars blocked its entrance. Saddam’s main office is at the complex, but there was no word that he was inside.