Global Policy Forum

Iraq will submit documentary proof to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan later this month that it has no more weapons of mass destruction, a senior government official was quoted Tuesday as saying.

However, it will not allow the return of international weapons inspectors, foreign ministry undersecretary Nabil Najem told the weekly newspaper al-Rafidain.

But it will accept monitoring of its weapons if U.N. sanctions are lifted and similar monitoring is imposed on all other countries in the Middle East, including Israel, he said.

He did not indicate how such monitoring might be carried out. Foreign Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf is due to lead a delegation in talks with Annan this month at United Nations headquarters in New York. The talks are aimed at breaking the impasse over international inspections of Iraqi weapons. ``We are confident that we have implemented all our commitments toward the Security Council's resolutions and we will submit documents and proofs to prove that,'' Najem told al-Rafidain.

``We have prepared documents and proofs including reports conducted by the previous U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM) and they will be in favor of Iraq.'' ``We will not accept the return of the inspectors,'' he added.

The New York talks are intended as a follow-up to a meeting between Annan and Izzat Ibrahim, vice chairman of Iraq's Revolutionary Command Council, during an Islamic summit in Qatar last November.

Najem said Iraq would only accept monitoring of its weapons after trade sanctions imposed by the United Nations were lifted and if the United Nations monitored all countries in the region, including Israel.

U.N. weapons inspectors have not been allowed into Iraq since they left in December 1998 on the eve of U.S.-British bombing strikes.

The raids were launched to punish Iraq for allegedly obstructing inspectors investigating sites where Iraq was suspected of storing or manufacturing weapons of mass destruction.

The United Nations imposed sanctions on Iraq after it invaded Kuwait in 1990. Baghdad has rejected a U.N. resolution adopted in December 1999 which calls for the suspension of sanctions if it allows weapons inspectors to return.