February 6, 2002
The meeting comes as Iraq, wary of possible U.S. attack, steps up a campaign to break out of its diplomatic isolation by offering to meet United Nations chief Kofi Annan for a ''dialogue'' without conditions.
Fearing an erosion of support for the U.N. restrictions imposed on Baghdad for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, Washington proposed a new formula -- so-called ''smart sanctions'' -- that would go some way towards meeting international concern that the measures hit too hard at Iraq's long-suffering population.
The proposal was approved last November by the U.N. Security Council, which includes Russia and China, but Washington and Moscow must agree on a new list of goods that Iraq may import under its ''oil-for-food'' programme. Baghdad has dismissed the smart sanctions plan as offering no improvement.
''The talks have started and we hope that they can wrap up tomorrow,'' said a spokesman for the U.S. diplomatic mission. Assistant Secretary of State John Wolf is heading the U.S. delegation to the meeting, which follows on from a similar session held in Moscow before Christmas.
The deadline for a final accord is the end of May when the six-month rolling mandate for sanctions must be renewed by the Security Council. Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Tuesday he felt a deal could be struck. ''I am very confident that...we will be able to implement smart sanctions in a way that all members of the Security Council will be able to abide with,'' he told a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
WEAPONS INSPECTORS
Russia, which is anxious to recoup $8 billion in Soviet-era Iraqi debt, agreed to negotiate the revised list despite having called in the past for the suspension and eventual lifting of the sanctions.
In return, Washington could be ready to review the conditions that Iraq needs to meet to get the sanctions lifted, providing that Baghdad agrees first to allow U.N. weapons inspectors to resume their work.
Oil-rich Iraq, which the United States accuses of seeking nuclear, chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction, has refused to allow the inspectors into the country since 1998, insisting that sanctions must be lifted first.
But in a sign that it could be softening its stance, Iraq said on Monday that it was willing to meet with U.N. Secretary-General Annan to discuss the implementation of Security Council resolutions.
President George W. Bush has accused Iraq of forming part of an ''axis of evil'' along with Iran and North Korea and warned Baghdad that it will have to face the consequences if it does not let U.N. inspectors resume their work. Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein clearly fears that he could become the next target of the United States' war against those it holds responsible for the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington in which some 3,000 people died.
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