Iraq agreed to allow U-2 surveillance flights over its territory, meeting a key demand by UN inspectors searching for banned weapons as European opposition to American military action mounted.
Baghdad's acceptance of the U-2 flights, as well as its submission of new documents to the UN over the weekend, marked Iraq's latest step to stave off a US-led attack and convince other governments that it was now ready to cooperate in full with UN inspectors.
US President George W. Bush, however, brushed aside Iraqi concessions as too little, too late.
"This is a man who is trying to stall for time," he said Monday after a meeting with Australian Prime Minister John Howard, a staunch US ally against Iraq. "The reason we need to fly U-2 flights is they're not disarming."
Key European governments insist that Iraq's cooperation is sufficient to allow inspections to continue and delay military action. On Monday, France, Germany and Belgium vetoed a US-backed measure to authorize NATO to make plans to protect Turkey in the event of attack by Iraq.
With the threat of war looming large, Baghdad appeared eager to display new cooperation with the inspectors in hopes of encouraging opposition to an imminent military strike. The announcement came days after five Iraqi scientists gave private interviews to the UN weapons inspectors.
"The inspectors are now free to use the American U-2s as well as French and Russian planes," Mohamed al-Douri, Iraqi ambassador to the UN, said in New York.
In a letter sent Monday to UN weapons inspectors, Iraq also pledged to pass legislation next week outlawing the use of weapons of mass destruction,
Yesterday, UN inspectors paid a surprise visit to a Baghdad missile plant as international experts met behind closed doors in New York to assess whether Iraq's short-range missiles can fly farther than permitted under UN edicts.
In their daily rounds of inspections, conducted despite a Muslim holiday in Iraq, a UN team went to a factory that makes molds and casts, including components for Iraq's al-Samoud ballistic missiles, the Information Ministry reported.
Chief weapons inspector Hans Blix reported to the Security Council on Jan. 27 that Iraq's liquid-fueled al-Samoud 2 missile reached a maximum of 183km in test flights, passing the limit of 150km set under UN resolutions imposing controls on Iraqi arms since the 1991 Gulf War.
The Iraqis say that, when operational, the missile's range will fall below 150km.
The findings of the two-day experts meeting that ended yesterday at UN headquarters in New York may be incorporated in an update report Blix must file with the Security Council on Friday. If the missile is found in violation, Blix's UN inspection agency is expected to demand modifications and to plan continued monitoring of the Samoud 2 arsenal.
The reports Friday by Blix and chief nuclear inspector Mohamed ElBaradei are expected to help decide the next steps to be taken by the Security Council in the long-running Iraq crisis.
The council majority, led by France, Germany and Russia, want to continue the inspections and oppose US plans for early military action against Iraq if -- in the US view -- it has not disarmed adequately.
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