Global Policy Forum

By Edith M. Lederer

U.N. nuclear inspectors are ready to resume work in Iraq at short notice and have only a few remaining questions about Baghdad's clandestine program to investigate, the nuclear agency said in a report. But until Iraq allows inspectors to return to the country, the International Atomic Energy Agency will not be able to determine whether Iraq has complied with Security Council resolutions demanding the elimination of its weapons of mass destruction, the report said.

Under council resolutions, sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait cannot be lifted until U.N. inspectors certify that the country's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons have been destroyed.

Inspectors left Iraq in December 1998, just ahead of allied airstrikes launched to punish Iraq for blocking inspections. Iraq has barred them from returning. The Security Council created a new weapons inspection agency in December to oversee destruction of Iraq's chemical and biological weapons and the missiles to deliver them. It is working with the Vienna-based IAEA. While Iraq has barred any inspections related to the sanctions regime, it did allow IAEA inspectors to visit in January to see if nuclear material in its reactors was being diverted to make weapons.

In a report to the Security Council, IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said the inspectors ''were able to verify the presence of the nuclear material remaining in Iraq that is subject to safeguards.'' But he said that visit could not substitute for the verification required under Security Council resolutions. ''The agency remains prepared to resume its verification activities in Iraq under the relevant Security Council resolutions at short notice,'' ElBaradei said.

In the last six months, the agency has revised and updated the list of nuclear and nuclear-related items and technologies that Iraq is banned from importing, he said. It has also been able to integrate commercially available satellite images into its information system on Iraq, he said.

The IAEA has also enhanced its analysis of original Iraqi documents on its nuclear program and the results of past inspections where concerns were previously reported. ElBaradei said.

If the IAEA resumed inspections and could satisfy itself that Iraq's past and present nuclear activities and nuclear assets have not changed since December 1998, the agency could then fully implement its monitoring and verification plan, he said. ''This plan, as designed, would enable the agency to investigate the few remaining questions and concerns that relate to Iraq's past clandestine nuclear program, along with any other aspect of this program that may come to its knowledge,'' he said.