UN weapons team searches Saddam palace

UN arms experts spent four hours searching the main presidential palace in the heart of Baghdad today.

The inspectors visited the palace in the al–Karadah district that is known popularly as the Old Palace. It was not immediately known if Saddam was in the palace, which overlooks the Tigris river.

Journalists, kept outside by Iraqi security officers, peered through the black and white gates to see UN and Iraqi vehicles parked on a long road lined by palm trees. They could not see the palace, which was built after the fall of the monarchy in 1958, bombed twice during 1991 Gulf war and subsequently repaired.

The inspectors left without speaking to reporters, but palace official Abu Mohammed Issawi said they had searched residential buildings and the offices of a war veterans agency.

Chief UN inspector Hans Blix said yesterday that the inspectors required months to finish their search for Iraq's nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, long–range missiles, and the programs that produced them.

Russia sent its Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Saltanov to Baghdad today for talks on a "diplomatic settlement of the Iraqi problem," Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said in a statement.

Mr Saltanov will also discuss oil with the Iraqis. The Baghdad government has cancelled a 1997 contract for the Russian company Lukoil to develop the West Qurna–2 oilfield, dismissing Lukoil's argument it was hampered by UN. sanctions on Iraq.

The United States, which is deploying about 100,000 troops to the Gulf region in preparation for a possible invasion of Iraq, said Tuesday it was calling up Iraqi exiles who wish to assist in such an attack.

The first batch of Iraqi dissidents who have volunteered to serve with US. forces have been told by the Pentagon to assemble at marshaling centres in the next several days, US. officials said.

Up to 3,000 Iraqis are expected to be trained to act as translators, guides, military police, and liaisons between US. forces and the Iraqi population. Washington has ruled out early suggestions that the dissidents would be used in combat.