U.N. arms inspectors started to work Tuesday, meeting with Iraqi officials. Chief U.N. inspector Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei, who oversees the International Atomic Energy Agency, sat down Monday night with Gen. Hosam Amin, Iraq's liaison with past inspectors, and presidential adviser Amir al-Saadi.
After a two-hour session, ElBaradei said the two sides had started to review arrangements for the inspections and would continue Tuesday. "I think we are making progress," he said.
On Tuesday, ElBaradei said Iraqi officials had promised to meet next month's deadline for disclosing information about banned weapons. According to ElBaradei, Iraqi officials made the commitment during talks with Blix and other team members after they arrived Monday.
"Iraq is committed to declare all it possesses regarding weapons of mass destruction, if it still has any of them ... and will also declare all of its activities in the chemical, biological and nuclear fields, even those of civilian use," ElBaradei told Associated Press.
"Iraq is committed to delivering this report before Dec. 8," ElBaradei said.
Blix and ElBaradei were guests at a dinner Monday night hosted by Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, according to a diplomatic source in New York.
Ewen Buchanan, a U.N. spokesman, said the first meetings with Iraqi officials late Monday were useful. He told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the first talks concentrated on the timeline of the U.N. resolution.
He said it would several weeks for the inspection teams to be up to full strength since not all arms inspectors were immediately available for work.
"There are people who we trained but they've gone back to their normal jobs and now some of them are getting leave of absence so that they can come down here to Baghdad and get on with inspection process," he said.
For his part, President Bush said he was going to a NATO summit in Prague seeking support for his hard-line policy against Iraq, and for shifting the alliance's mission toward fighting against terrorism.
Bush indicated he would be making no request for NATO military help against Iraq at the Thursday and Friday summit. If military action were needed, Bush said he would consult NATO members "and everybody will be able to make the decision that they're comfortable with."
"I hope it happens peacefully. But if it doesn't, people will know that our intent is to lead a coalition of like-minded, freedom-loving countries to disarm Saddam Hussein," he said, according to Reuters.
"One way or the other, he's going to be disarmed. And it's in everybody's interest that that be the case. So we'll talk about that."
Meanwhile on Monday, allied warplanes bombed Iraqi air defense systems in the northern no-fly zone after the U.S. military said the jets were fired on during routine patrols. Iraq considers such patrols a violation of its sovereignty and frequently shoots at them.
In Washington, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the Iraqi anti-aircraft fire "appears to be a violation" of the latest U.N. resolution. (Albawaba.com)
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