Inspectors visit first presidential palace
BBC NewsUnited Nations weapons inspectors have begun their first visit to one of President Saddam Hussein's palaces since relaunching their mission in Iraq last week.
The team arrived on Tuesday morning at the Sijood palace in the Karkh district of Baghdad, one of eight sprawling presidential sites that are high on the list of suspected hiding places for banned weaponry.
The BBC's Ben Brown in Baghdad says the inspectors waited for 10 minutes outside the compound, where there was shouting, arguing and confusion - but eventually the huge iron gates swung open.
On Monday, US President George W Bush said he had not been encouraged by Iraq's reaction to the latest efforts to force it to comply with UN resolutions.
Members of the previous arms inspection regime were barred from entering presidential sites without advance warning and a diplomatic escort, before inspectors were eventually withdrawn in 1998.
Our correspondent says Tuesday's inspection is a symbolic act, showing that the weapons inspectors mean business this time around.
Sanctions breach
On Monday, UN inspectors said Iraq had admitted trying to illegally import aluminium tubing to help build weapons.
But the Iraqis say they tried to obtain the piping for use in conventional arms, and not nuclear weapons as the United States and Britain allege.
A BBC correspondent in Washington says it appears to be the first time since weapons inspections resumed that Iraq has admitted attempting to break arms sanctions.
But according to the weapons inspectors, the Iraqis insisted it was actually meant to be used in multi-barrelled rocket launchers.
The Iraqis also said that despite several attempts, they never actually succeeded in importing any of the tubing.
But even its attempted import would be a breach of UN sanctions.
After completing five days of work, UN weapons inspectors have apparently found no evidence of the weapons of mass destruction programme that the US says Iraq has.
Warning
US Deputy Secretary of Defence Paul Wolfowitz told the BBC that although war with Iraq was not inevitable, the final chapter of an 11-year effort to disarm Iraq had been reached.
Mr Bush, for his part, challenged Baghdad to provide a "credible and complete" list of its nuclear, biological and chemical weapons by Sunday.
Only by doing this will Iraq comply with the first deadline set out in a recent UN resolution that gives the country a final chance to disarm.
"Any act of delay, deception or defiance will prove that Saddam Hussein has not adopted the path of compliance, and has rejected the path of peace," Mr Bush said.
The president has threatened to lead a "coalition of the willing" to disarm Iraq if Baghdad fails to give up its weapons.
The US president - who spoke at the Pentagon during his signing of a defence bill providing billions of dollars of extra funding for his war on terrorism - was reluctant to declare the first inspections a success.
"In the inspections process, the United States will be making one judgment: Has Saddam Hussein changed his behaviour of the last 11 years? Has he decided to co-operate willingly and comply completely or has he not?" he said.
"So far, the signs are not encouraging."
The inspections are a farce, the UN is complicit in all this.
Regards, Ivan
Thanks MadIvan