U.N. official - Look for low-key first inspections

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- U.N. weapons experts, striking a low profile on their first Iraq inspections, will probably revisit places checked by inspectors in the 1990s and left under the watch of surveillance gear, a U.N. spokesman said Thursday.

A contingent of 18 inspectors will arrive Monday, and their first field operations are expected next Wednesday, at the start of months of work that may spell the difference between war and peace in Iraq.

"Most likely the inspectors may go back to the sites previously monitored," said spokesman Hiro Ueki.

They'll check whether cameras and other monitoring equipment at such sites are still functioning, and look for any signs that forbidden weapons activities have resumed during the four-year gap in inspections.

No showdown likely

Although not likely to provoke a showdown with the Iraqis, the first inspections are significant for another reason: They'll begin a 60-day countdown to the first comprehensive report by the inspection agency, the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission.

The U.N. teams are returning to Baghdad under a new U.N. Security Council resolution describing the inspections as a "final opportunity" for Iraq to meet its post-Gulf War obligation to give up chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.

The last inspectors left in 1998 amid disputes over access to sensitive Iraqi sites and Iraqi complaints that the operation was infiltrated by U.S. spies.

The council will consider late January's 60-day report -- and any intervening reports -- against a backdrop of U.S. threats to invade Iraq if the Baghdad government fails to cooperate in the U.N. disarmament effort.