Iraq: Bush leans hard on Russia

Iraq’s offer this week to readmit UN arms inspectors after a four-year hiatus, made under international pressure, divided the Security Council and slowed Bush’s drive for a new mandate for unfettered inspections backed by force.

The Russian foreign minister said after the meeting that both Russia and the US want Iraq to comply fully with all existing UN resolutions and that weapons inspectors return.

‘‘Russia and US are firmly interested in making the work of inspectors in Iraq effective and to ensure it gives a clear answer whether there are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq or not, and we agreed to pursue the exchange of views on how to make the work of the inspectors more effective,’’ Ivanov said.

Bush is in no mood to wait out a lengthy process to get UN weapons inspectors back into Iraq. Chief UN inspector Hans Blix told a closed UN Security Council meeting on Thursday that he expected to send a party of disarmament experts to Baghdad on Oct. 15 and that work could start within two months after that.

‘‘This is, again, why the President is focused on disarmament. That remains the key, not the process of inspectors,’’ said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer about the Blix timetable. (Reuters)