Butler issues guidelines to Iraq

BAGHDAD, June 14: UN weapons chief Richard Butler held talks with senior Iraqi officials here on the disarmament roadmap'' Iraq will need ...

BAGHDAD, June 14: UN weapons chief Richard Butler held talks with senior Iraqi officials here on the disarmament 8220;roadmap8221; Iraq will need to follow for lifting of economic sanctions.

Saadun Hammadi, the speaker of the Iraqi parliament, urged Butler8217;s UN Special Commission UNSCOM to quickly wrap up its activities and insisted that Baghdad had 8220;fulfilled all its requirements8221;.

Butler, who arrived here on Thursday for a five day visit, is heading an 18-member delegation. He met a team of Iraqi officials headed by deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz, yesterday.

Technical experts from the two sides also talked for more than three hours yesterday, UN officials here said.

But details of their discussions were not immediately available.

Butler sought to reassure Iraq that his job could be finished within months, clearing the way for an end to UN sanctions, if Baghdad accepted his 8220;roadmap8221; for disarmament.

8220;We have not come to impose some list on Iraq, a take-it-or-leave-it thing,8221; Butler said,while praising Iraq8217;s 8220;outstanding8221; cooperation since it signed a February 23 accord with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

Butler said the 8220;roadmap8221; he had brought to discuss with Iraqi officials was a 8220;very clear definitive list of the jobs that need to be done to bring into existence a final accord of weapons of mass destruction8221;.But Iraq has dismissed the 8220;roadmap8221; as a political ploy aimed at prolonging the crippling UN sanctions in force since Iraq8217;s 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

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8220;The coming and going of inspectors and the pretexts put forward by UNSCOM to maintain sanctions cannot continue,8221; Hammadi told Iraqi television.8220;The Iraqi people, the Arab masses, Muslims and free men around the world will fight with all their strength against the hostile polices of UNSCOM,8221; Hammadi added.

The Iraqi parliament adopted a resolution in October threatening to cut off all cooperation with UNSCOM. Iraqi leaders warned in April that maintaining UN sanctions would have 8220;serious consequences8221;.