BAGHDAD, January 20: Chief UN weapons inspector Richard Butler started a second day of talks with Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz here today as Washington insisted on full and unconditional access for weapons inspectors. Butler was accompanied by Charles Duelfer, his US deputy in the UN special commission (UNSCOM) in charge of dismantling Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, Iraqi sources said.UNSCOM commissioners from Canada, China and Italy as well as Nikita Smidovich of Russia, the chief ballistic missiles inspector, were also in his delegation which held opened talks at the foreign ministry in the Iraqi capital the previous night.As in the three-hour session on Monday, Oil Minister General Amer Mohammad Al-Rashid and Amer Saadi, an adviser to President Saddam Hussein, were in the Iraqi team.Neither side made any comment on the progress of the talks, which were being held under the threat of a six-month deadline on the work of UNSCOM unless economic sanctions are lifted.Ahead of the meetings, Butler said that only full Iraqi cooperation could lead to the completion of UNSCOM's mission and clear the way for a lifting of the embargo in force since Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. "This work can be done quite quickly with full Iraqi cooperation. It will end when it ends," said Butler, whose visit winds up tomorrow. But to set a six-month deadline, as Saddam threatened last Saturday, would show "a degree of arbitrariness that makes no practical sense," he told reporters.The US ambassador to the United Nations Bill Richardson also dismissed the deadline threat and stressed that the priority on Butler's mission would be to secure access for UNSCOM inspectors."The most important development will be the result of Butler's trip, whether the UN inspectors get full unconditional access," said Richardson. France had a similar message, with a foreign ministry spokeswoman saying that Iraq "must come to an understanding" with Butler, who made a stopover in Paris on his way to Baghdad.Under the cease-fire terms of the 1991 Gulf war, the sanctions cannot be lifted until UNSCOM certifies the elimination of Iraq's capacity to produce weapons of mass destruction.Meanwhile, the UN may bow to an Iraqi demand to rectify the make-up of a weapons inspection team to give it a more geographical balance.The Iraqis charge that the UNSCOM inspection team - as presently constituted - is heavily weighed in favour of the United States and Britain.Russia, France and China - the three other veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council - have already volunteered more of their arms experts to the commission investigating Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.The 44-member team led by Scott Ritter, a US national, includes 28 who are classified as arms inspectors. There are 10 US nationals, five Britons, three French, two Austrians and one each from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, Finland, Germany, India, Ireland, Sweden and Switzerland.Iraq has not only protested the composition of the team, but has also accused Ritter of being a spy for his country. Ritter served with the US-led allied forces against Iraq in the 1991 Gulf war.
