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Iraq invites U.N. inspectors to return

BAGHDAD JAN. 31. Iraq said on Friday it was anxious to discuss key unresolved issues with top United Nations weapons inspectors — including private interviews with scientists and surveillance flights — if they accept an invitation for new talks here next month.

Maj. Gen. Hossam Mohammed Amin, chief Iraqi liaison officer with the inspectors, said Iraq was interested in resolving outstanding issues before Mr. Blix and Mr. ElBaradei make their next report to the U.N. Security Council on Feb. 14.

However, it was unclear whether Iraq was prepared to make concessions on the issues of surveillance flights and private interviews with Iraqi scientists and others.

Outlining the Iraqi position, Gen. Amin suggested Baghdad would not oppose overflights by U-2 aircraft, as requested by the United Nations, as long as the U.S. and Britain stop patrols over the ``no-fly'' zones of southern and northern Iraq while the spy planes are in the air. This way, he said, Iraqi anti-aircraft batteries would not mistake the reconnaissance plane for American and British jets and fire on it.

The no-fly zones have been enforced by the U.S. and Britain since 1991 to protect Iraqi Kurds in the north and Shiite Muslims in the south from Iraq's army.

Gen. Amin also said it was up to individual scientists whether they wanted to speak to U.N. inspectors in private.

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