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US delays Russian MP Iraq trip South News Feb 8 MOSCOW: United States on Saturday delayed Russian MPs visit of disputed Iraqi "presidential sites". Viktor Cheremukhin, press secretary of the State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, told Interfax that Washington and London objected to the flight on grounds it would violate UN sanctions against Iraq. As a result of the objections, Cheremukhin said the flight had been "delayed for an unspecified amount of time." Russia's lower house of parliament on Friday accepted an Iraqi invitation to send a delegation to Baghdad, which is in a stand-off with the United Nations over arms inspectors. Gennady Seleznyov, chairman of the State Duma lower house, told reporters the delegation, including two members of each major parliamentary faction. ``I think it was a good idea for the deputies to visit Iraq to see with their own eyes what the situation is like there and maybe their example will encourage the U.S. Congress to take a similar step,'' Seleznyov said. The Iraqi embassy in Moscow issued visas to 57 Duma deputies and 73 journalists to make the trip, ITAR-TASS said. An embassy spokesman said that Baghdad would limit neither the amount of time the Russian delegation would spend in Iraq nor its access to disputed "presidentital sites". The Duma urged President Boris Yeltsin to veto any military action against Iraq in the U.N. Security Council and to retreat from international sanctions against Iraq if the United States launches a military strike. -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a discussion list run by Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To be removed/added, email soc-casi-discuss-request@lists.cam.ac.uk, NOT the whole list. Archived at http://linux.clare.cam.ac.uk/~saw27/casi/discuss.html