Iraq says no need for U.N. weapons inspection

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A senior Iraqi official said Monday there is no need for U.N. weapons inspectors to return to Baghdad and branded as a "lie" allegations that Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction.

In response to the comments by the Iraqi information minister, the U.S. State Department said Baghdad was refusing to give a straight answer on resuming inspections after nearly four years.

"They refuse to face up to their obligations and obfuscate and look for ways to move the goal posts when it's a simple situation," spokesman Philip Reeker said.

"The issue is not inspections but verified disarmament," he said. "Iraq needs to disarm."

Iraq's information minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, said President Bush was lying about the country's weapons programs to drum up support for his Iraq policy, which calls for Saddam's ouster.

Bush "knows that he is standing in quicksand when it comes to his baseless talk on Iraq," al-Sahhaf told the Arabic satellite television Al-Jazeera.

Al-Sahhaf also said Iraqi opposition leaders who met with American officials in Washington were "bats ... and a bad American product."

His remarks came as many countries -- including some U.S. allies -- have expressed opposition to U.S. military action against Iraq and as Baghdad has opened a campaign portraying itself as the victim of false U.S. propaganda.

'This is a lie'

Al-Sahhaf said the U.N. work concerning alleged Iraqi weapons programs was completed.

"This is a lie. This is an American stance," he said of Washington's insistence Iraq still possesses or seeks to build chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.

A report by the U.N. inspection agency issued in January 1999 -- a month after inspectors were withdrawn -- mentioned priority issues that Iraq had not satisfactorily resolved. Those included its development of VX, a deadly chemical weapons nerve agent; its missile production capabilities; and many remaining question marks about its biological weapons program.

Despite intense discussions within the Bush administration about preparation for a possible invasion of Iraq, the president said Saturday that he had no "imminent war plan" but that Saddam remains "an enemy until proven otherwise."

It was unclear from al-Sahhaf's remarks whether Iraq was shutting inspectors out for good. Baghdad has been sending mixed signals on whether it will act on its recent invitation to U.N. chief weapons inspector Hans Blix to meetings to determine how to resolve disarmament issues.

The inspectors' return is a demand of the U.N. Security Council, especially the U.S.

In New York, U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said Secretary-General Kofi Annan had sent an Aug. 6 letter to Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri "and we're still awaiting an official reply to that letter."

Annan's letter told Iraq it m ust accept the U.N. roadmap for the return of inspectors. Sabri's Aug. 1 invitation to Blix outlined a proposal at odds with the council's blueprint.

Later Monday, Sabri told reporters Baghdad was preparing a reply to Annan's letter.

Under U.N. Security Council resolutions, sanctions imposed after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, which led to the Gulf War, cannot be lifted until inspectors certify Iraq's biological, chemical and nuclear weapons have been destroyed, along with the missiles to deliver them. U.N. weapons inspectors left Iraq in 1998 in advance of U.S. and British airstrikes. Baghdad has barred them from returning.

Baghdad has been insisting the Security Council reply to 19 political and technical questions it posed in March.

Annan and Security Council members insist that Iraq follow a 1999 resolution requiring inspectors to visit Iraq and determine within 60 days what arms questions Iraq must answer.