Iraqi palaces are stumbling block for inspectors

The prospects of a swift agreement at the United Nations on a new resolution on Iraq dimmed further yesterday with the issue of access for weapons inspectors to Saddam Hussein's palaces emerging as a key stumbling block.

Britain and the United States are determined to abrogate a deal negotiated by the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, and the Iraqi regime that accords special treatment to eight different sites labelled presidential by Baghdad. They cover about 20 square miles and include more than 1,000 buildings.

Undoing that agreement will be difficult, however. The understanding reached by Mr Annan with Iraq in early 1998, which meant that inspectors could only visit the sites if they were accompanied by teams of foreign diplomats, was later enshrined in a UN resolution.

While President Saddam agreed early last week to the return of weapons inspectors without conditions, he later insisted that he expected it to happen on the basis of UN resolutions already agreed. Russia and France are also opposed to any unravelling of existing UN texts on Iraq.

London and Washington had been hoping for a new, toughly worded, resolution on Iraq by this weekend. With Washington still agonising over what the resolution should contain, it seems unlikely that anything will emerge from the UN Security Council before next week.

Making matters worse was yesterday's declaration from President Vladimir Putin of Russia suggesting that Moscow was opposed to the adoption of a council resolution of any kind.

Meanwhile, the timetable for getting the inspectors back to Iraq continues to slide. This raises problems for Hans Blix, the chief UN weapons inspector, who is scheduled to meet Iraqi officials in Vienna on Monday to discussarrangements for the return of his teams. Ideally, any new council resolution on Iraq would have been adopted before those talks.

It remains possible that the council, or Mr Annan, will ask Mr Blix to postpone his meeting until after the muddle is resolved. But a spokesman for Mr Blix said nothing had changed and that the talks were still expected to take place in Vienna on Monday and Tuesday.

No one could predict, meanwhile, how divisions in the Council on the presidential site matter could be settled. The 1998 agreement reached by Mr Annan is viewed by the US as a symbol of the UN's willingness in the past to give Iraq too much rope and allow inspections to become almost useless.

The Iraq dossier released by Tony Blair says the reluctance of President Saddam to give unfettered access to sites is "an integral part of Iraqi counter-measures designed to hide weapons of mass destruction".

It is not as if Mr Blix expects to find weapons or laboratories at any of the sites. They do suspect, however, that the facilities may have served as venues for the management of Iraq's weapons programmes and that they may be the hiding place for important documents.

On the other hand, Britain and the US will be reminded that they were present – as two of the permanent five members – when the Council endorsed Mr Annan's deal later in 1998.

If the Council gets hung up on this one question, it may be enough to block agreement on a resolution altogether and give the US the excuse to turn its back on the UN and forge ahead with plans for unilateral action, presumably with Britain still at its side. Washington is adamant that without free admission to the presidential sites, any return of the inspectors would be pointless.

Diplomats said last night Mr Blix would have plenty to talk to the Iraqis about on Monday, even without a new resolution. He is expected to focus on organisational matters, such as facilities for his helicopters and how interpretation difficulties will be handled. Assuming a new resolution is finally pushed through, Mr Blix will then be free to resume talks with the Iraqis on points arising from it.

But officials warned that even if an Anglo-American text surfaces in New York as early as Monday, it will be many days before the Council will have the chance of adopting it.

It may be that only Iraq could solve the problem by making clear that it is ready to hand over the keys to the sites. So far, it has been giving contradictory signals on the issue.

Last weekend, Iraq's state radio said that it will not co-operate with a new resolution if it is different from what was agreed upon with the (UN) Secretary-General.

This week, however, an adviser to President Saddam took a more conciliatory note. "The UN weapons inspectors would have unfettered access and [can go] wherever they want to go," Amir al-Saadi saidon Wednesday, adding that he expected them to be in Iraq in mid-October.