Baghdad agrees to U-2 spy aircraft flights

Iraq moved to try to head off an American-led attack yesterday by unconditionally giving the green light to over-flights by U-2 spy aircraft and pledging to push through legislation to ban the use of weapons of mass destruction.

The offers came the day after the chief United Nations weapons inspectors, Hans Blix and Mohamed al-Baradei, wound up two days of urgent talks with Iraqi officials in Baghdad. Overcoming Iraqi objections to the use of U-2 planes was one of the key aims they took to the meetings.

The apparent concessions came in a letter handed to the inspection directorate at the UN in New York by Iraq's ambassador, Mohamed al-Douri. They seemed to represent the first concrete achievements of the meetings with Mr Blix and Mr Baradei.

Earlier, Saddam Hussein seemed to signal some conditions to the U-2 offer, arguing that Britain and the US should suspend all patrols of the northern and southern no-fly zones while the spy aircraft are aloft. But UN officials said the letter from Iraq was clear that no conditions were attached.

President Saddam told a visiting South African delegation: "If the two countries are engaged in daily combat, how can we allow the U-2 aircraft to fly in our airspace to photograph our air defences and provide information on them with the aim of destroying them?"

A White House spokesman said that the bottom line for President George Bush was disarming Iraq, and the agreement on U-2 flights "does nothing to change that bottom line".

The Iraqi letter was written by Amer al-Saadi, an adviser to President Saddam and Iraq's liaison to the inspectors, Mr Douri said.

"The inspectors are now free to use the American U-2s as well as French and Russian planes," Mr Douri announced. Previously, Iraq had refused to guarantee the safety of the U–2 because of its long-standing objections to continuing American and British patrols over the no-fly zones.

Less encouragingly, Mr Blix said that new documents handed over by Iraq purporting to back up its claim that it had destroyed missing chemical and biological weapons and agents did not, at first sight, seem to offer any new evidence.

But Mr Baradei, on his return to Vienna last night, was more upbeat. "There was a commitment they will fully comply" with the inspections regime, he told reporters. "We made progress on all the areas we asked for." The Iraqi ambassador promised that the legislation banning weapons of mass destruction – another condition laid down by the inspectors – would be adopted in Baghdad before the end of next week. He also said Iraq would do more to encourage Iraqi scientists to accept private interviews with inspectors.

"They should have done all this months, if not years ago," a British official responded. "The big question is, are we seeing Iraq throwing bits out here and there just to impress the Security Council, or does this represent a real change in attitude? Is this just process, or a shift in substance as well?"

A spokesman for Mr Baradei said Iraq had agreed to allow inspectors to analyse sites where it claims to have destroyed old chemical and biological weapons.