WASHINGTON, NOV 15: The United States, which put on hold an attack planned for Sunday on Iraq, has decided to allow United Nations weapons inspectors to return to Saddam Hussein's country, CNN reported.The US decision, which effectively negates the possibility of any military strike, came after assurances from Iraq that its offer to allow the weapons inspectors, given the task of searching for weapons of mass destruction, was unconditional, CNN said.The report came in the backdrop of earlier information that the UN Security Council, in the face of opposition from the US, had failed to reach a consensus over Iraq's offer to resume cooperation with weapons inspectors.A divided Security Council, which failed to take a decision on Iraq's offer after a late night marathon session, is meeting again to discuss the issue.The US, at the Council meeting, had firmly rejected the Iraqi offer, while France, Russia and China welcomed it, even as Britain kept its options open in the six-hour session.Earlier, USofficials, including Secretary of State Madeleine Albright who is now in Kuala Lumpur to participate in the APEC meeting, however, had kept the option open for a military strike on Iraq.The Washington Times earlier reported that Clinton had decided to launch an attack on Iraq today but the strike was put on hold immediately after he received news that President Saddam Hussein seemed to have backed down and agreed to resume cooperation with UN weapons inspectors.``The trigger had been pulled when Clinton retired to the White House residence on Friday,'' the Post said quoting government sources, and added that at 1400 GMT (1930 IST) on Sunday, US ships and planes in the Gulf were scheduled to release cruise missiles on targets in Iraq.However, US National Security Advisor Sandy Berger had said that the US was poised to take military action against Iraq and had dismissed Baghdad's offer to lift a ban on UN arms inspections as unacceptable.He rejected Baghdad's proposal contained in a letter to UNSecretary General Kofi Annan, saying an annex to the letter was ``full of conditions''.``We were poised to take military action, and we remain poised to take military action,'' Berger had said.In a related development, despite the decreasing threats of a US military strike on Iraq, China and Russia announced evacuation of the families of their diplomatic staff from the country.
