Dusty welcome in Iraq as UN picks up where it left off

Miroslav Gregoric will not forget his first sight of the Canal Hotel in a hurry. "The windows had been smashed and pigeons had got in," he said. "Every step I took in the room, the dust rose in the air. I was using a video camera, and through the viewfinder the dust looked like hundreds of stars."

Returning to their locked headquarters on Monday, nearly four years after they quit Iraq, United Nations weapons inspectors also found Christmas trees with mouldering decorations, half-consumed food and drink, unmade beds and clothing abandoned in a rush. "We have had to destroy the cans and bottles of drink," said Mr Gregoric, the 54-year-old Slovenian directing the new UN mission. "If they had found their way back into the market, they could have made people seriously ill."

It was a dusty welcome to a mission that will determine whether there is peace in Iraq, or an attack led by the United States.

Only a few hours earlier, when they arrived at Saddam Hussein airport in a chartered C-130 Hercules, the inspectors found themselves having to walk over freshly painted slogans on the terminal floor, reading "Down with USA", and "Long Live Our Beloved Saddam". The minute they reached the arrivals hall, the team was besieged by reporters.

"We weren't expecting a press conference, and it was absolute pandemonium," said Hiro Ueki. While Mr Gregoric's task is to liaise directly with Iraqi officials and to report to Hans Blix, the chief UN arms inspector, and Mohamed El Baradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Authority, 45-year-old Mr Ueki, a Japanese specialist in international relations, is the public face of the mission.

Both men have a difficult job. If Mr Gregoric, a nuclear specialist and former chairman of the board of governors of the IAEA, reports Iraqi obstruction, subterfuge or anything deemed a "material breach" of this month's UN resolution on inspections, it will be the trigger for the Americans to launch an invasion. Mr Ueki, meanwhile, will have to deal with the propaganda barrage the Iraqi regime can be expected to unleash. A veteran of UN missions to East Timor, South Africa and Namibia, he was hand-picked for this mission by Mr Blix.

Mr Gregoric was among UN officials at a dinner hosted by Amer Al Sadi, one of Saddam Hussein's closest advisers. "It was a very pleasant evening, and we had a useful exchange of information," Mr Gregoric recalled. But the Iraqis were said to have been "staggered" by the list of demands presented by the UN.

The inspectors' head-quarters were still being cleaned up yesterday, and on Tuesday they began work in rooms borrowed from other UN agencies.

Mr Gregoric met Husam Mohammed Amin, head of the Iraqi National Monitoring Directorate, set up by the Iraqis to liaise with the monitors. "At the moment our discussions are essentially about logistics, bringing in equipment and personnel, discussing security," the UN man said. "It is like a game of chess. We shall have to be careful how we go along. We are doing a very delicate job, and we cannot afford to make mistakes."

Wednesday was spent reviewing security. The UN team will have to sweep their offices for bugging devices and set up secure communications with New York and Geneva. Mr Ueki, meanwhile, was preparing for a media operation that will intensify once the inspections get under way. About 50 journalists were at the first press conference, on Friday; that number will quadruple over the next few weeks.

Yesterday another batch of personnel and equipment arrived from Cyprus, a team of 12 inspectors is due tomorrow and the first "surprise" check takes place on Wednesday.

"The first days will be vitally important," Mr Gregoric said, "but we are here for the long haul."