U.N. Inspectors Resume Work at Iraqi Sites

BAGHDAD —  U.N. weapons inspectors resumed full-scale operations in Iraq on Saturday, and Iraqi officials said a team at the center of a recent dispute inspected a “sensitive site” without incident.

Hussam Mohammed Amin, Iraq’s main liaison official with the U.N. Special Commission inspectors, said teams from the United Nations Special Commission, or UNSCOM, and the International Atomic Energy Agency visited 24 sites Saturday.

Amin said the team led by Australian inspector Roger Hill, which was denied full access to offices of Iraq’s ruling Arab Baath Socialist Party on Wednesday, had inspected what he described as a sensitive site in Baghdad.

The inspections are part of UNSCOM’s stepped-up work aimed at testing Iraq’s last-minute pledge of renewed cooperation in November that narrowly averted U.S. and British military strikes.

UNSCOM has reported several incidents during the inspections, the most serious being the thwarted inspection at the Baath party offices.

But diplomats in Baghdad have questioned whether some of the incidents represent major infringements of UNSCOM work.

UNSCOM Chairman Richard Butler is expected to report on Iraq’s cooperation to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan this week. Iraq says its cooperation warrants the lifting of the sanctions imposed after it invaded Kuwait in 1990.

Iraq halted cooperation with UNSCOM in October and reversed itself Nov. 14 as the U.S. and Britain were preparing military strikes.