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[ Presenting plain-text part of multi-format email ] Evelyn Leopold Reuters UNITED NATIONS (Aug. 5) - Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Monday he was asking Iraq to clarify its invitation for weapons talks, indicating he expected Baghdad to first show willingness to allow U.N. arms inspectors to return unconditionally after nearly four years. He spoke to reporters after briefing U.N. Security Council members about a reply he was drafting to Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri's invitation last Thursday for chief U.N. arms inspector Hans Blix to come to Baghdad for technical talks. "We would want to discuss with them the return of the inspectors," Annan said. "If Iraq is open to that sort of idea, there are practical (means) for moving forward, and this is something we are are going to explore in the next letter." Facing U.S. threats to topple President Saddam Hussein, Iraq has said Blix should review all pending issues on Baghdad's alleged weapons of mass destruction, key to suspending U.N. sanctions imposed when Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990. Sabri for the first time also said the talks could lead to a "solid basis" for the return of the inspectors, out of the country since December 1998. But Blix has said he would only discuss "practical issues" because a 1999 Security Council resolution prevented him from analyzing arms data until the inspectors were back on the ground to determine what happened since they left on the eve of a U.S.-British bombing raid. Annan, however, said he was not rejecting the invitation for Blix and his team to conduct talks. "But there are clarifications, which we have to give to the Iraqis and get them to understand that the council has given certain instructions to Mr. Blix as to how to proceed," he said. "If they accept to work with him on that basis the invitation would be looked at in a different light." U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte played down any divisions among the 15 council members. But Gennady Gatilov of Russia, Iraq's closest ally on the council, said there was "not too much agreement." Annan described the differences as "shades of emphasis" between those members who believed "we should go the last mile to get the inspectors in" and those who believed "this is gamesmanship and that nothing may come out of it." ROAD MAP Negroponte, this month's Security Council president, said all members "felt that the road map to renewed inspections, and of course, disarmament of Iraq" was clear in the 1999 resolution, number 1284. As expected, Negroponte voiced U.S. opposition to the Iraqi invitation, saying it did not "present any new departure from what was already said in Vienna." where Annan and Blix met Sabri and his team on July 4-5. "It in effect tries to rewrite Resolution 1284, so on the basis of that letter in and of itself, we would be deeply skeptical, to say the least, of any move by the Secretariat to accept the Iraqi invitation," Negroponte said. In a memo to Annan on Monday, the Iraqi government reminded the secretary-general there was agreement for further technical talks when they met in Vienna, their third round this year. But Iraq in the new memo said: "We cannot think of starting a new stage without solving the pending issues of the previous stage because that will surely mean we are going back once again into a minefield." Differences would occur immediately and "crises will return." The inspectors, as they did during the seven years they were in Iraq, would leave after a few weeks and "the United States would follow up with calls for aggression against Iraq," the memo said. Asked about U.S. threats to topple Saddam, Annan repeated earlier messages, saying "it would be unwise to attack Iraq, given the current circumstances of what's happening in the Middle East." He said he hoped the Security Council "will have something to say about the implementation of its own resolutions." But the United States, if it does attack, has no intention of seeking approval from the council. The White House on Monday also rejected an invitation from Baghdad to members of Congress to look at any alleged weapons site, although it admitted no interested lawmaker could be prevented from going. "There's no need for discussion. What there is a need for is for the regime in Baghdad to live up to its commitment to disarm," U.S. National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack said. U.S. officials, who suspect Saddam of rebuilding his arsenal of weapons of mass destruction, say Washington is committed to a policy of ousting Saddam, which is not linked to the inspections issue. Reuters 17:30 08-05-02 Roger Stroope Peace is a Human Right Austin College _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk