A Russian envoy held talks in Baghdad Monday with Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz in an effort to lift the decade-old UN embargo on Baghdad, the official news agency INA reported.
It said Nikolai Kartuzov and Aziz reviewed "the latest developments on the Iraq situation and the continuation of coordination between the two countries".
On Saturday, Kartuzov said Russia was working "seriously" for lifting the embargo slapped on Baghdad for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait and linked to the elimination of banned Iraqi weaponry.
The foreign ministry in Moscow, meanwhile, said Russia was seeking a renewal of cooperation between Iraq and the United Nations on the issue of disarmament to clear the way for a suspension of sanctions to be followed by their lifting.
Baghdad and the United Nations are expected to reopen a dialogue in January, more than a year after a UN Security Council resolution offered a suspension of sanctions in return for Iraq's cooperation with a new arms control regime.
Iraq has rejected the resolution which dates back to December 1999, a year after UN arms inspectors were evacuated on the eve of a US-British air war -- BAGHDAD (AFP)
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