Annan says talks over weapons inspections `difficult'
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - After a day of ``difficult negotiations,'' U.N. chief Kofi Annan said Sunday he would meet Iraq's president to try to reach an agreement on U.N. inspections to avert a U.S. military strike.Annan met with Iraqi officials until 2 a.m. Sunday, but indicated he had been unable to resolve the last details of an agreement to grant U.N. inspectors access to all suspected weapons sites, including presidential palaces.
A U.N. source said ``there were still unresolved issues, at least one of them significant,'' at the end of those talks.
The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the problem was over the ``phrasing'' of a proposed written agreement, which would then have to be endorsed by the United States.
Annan met the Iraqi leaders briefly Sunday at the foreign ministry. No details were available, but the Iraqi News Agency quoted Annan as saying that progress was made. It did not elaborate.
Before entering the latest talks, Annan said ``these are serious and difficult negotiations'' but added, ``We are making progress.''
He said he will meet with President Saddam Hussein later Sunday.
``There are certain issues I will have to clarify with him,'' Annan said, adding: ``After that I will have a better idea of where we are. I am still optimistic.''
It appeared that major hurdles included Iraq's demand for a time limit on U.N. inspections of the eight presidential compounds that the Iraqis have placed off-limits, citing national sovereignty.
The U.N. Security Council has insisted on free and unimpeded access by U.N. weapons inspectors to all sites in the country.
The United States has vowed to hit Iraq with its military might if Annan fails to persuade Saddam to open all sites without conditions. The U.S. military has deployed 25,000 troops in the Gulf region.
A government newspaper on Sunday called the U.S. demand for unconditional access ``illogical and unrealistic,'' and said the best way out of the crisis is a compromise.
The Al-Thawra newspaper did not elaborate on an acceptable compromise.
Also Sunday, Iraq's parliament sent a memorandum to members of the Security Council, urging them to prevent the United States from using force.
Meanwhile, the spokesman of the weapons inspection team, Alan Dacey, said experts on chemical, biological and nuclear weapons went out as usual to conduct their examinations of various non-controversial sites Sunday.
He declined to say how many inspectors or how many teams were involved, but said, ``We have been operating every day since Nov. 22 of last year.''
The inspectors are trying to determine if Iraq has complied with U.N. orders issued at the end of the 1991 Gulf War to destroy all long-range missiles and weapons of mass destruction.
That is the main condition for lifting crippling economic sanctions that the council imposed in 1990 after Iraq invaded neighboring Kuwait, touching off the war.
Iraq says it has complied with the orders but that the United States and Britain manipulated the inspections to maintain the sanctions.
The State Department, meanwhile, issued a warning to Americans in Iraq to ``depart as soon as possible.'' The White House said the warning was routine and didn't mean military action was imminent.
In other news, Denis Halliday, the U.N. relief coordinator for Iraq, said Saturday that if a military strike occurred, food shortages would develop quickly because the United Nations did not have enough in stock to feed Iraq's 22 million people.
Iran warned that a military strike would send a flood of Iraqi refugees into Iran, and Turkey rejected a U.N. appeal to leave open its borders for refugees fleeing possible military strikes against Iraq.
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