UN-Iraq talks to resume: Annan

Talks between the United Nations and Iraq on the possible return of UN arms inspectors to Iraq should resume within a month, Secretary General Kofi Annan said on Friday.

"The next round will be within a month; it could be here, it could be elsewhere," he told reporters after he and other UN officials completed three day talks with a delegation led by Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri. Asked to elaborate on the venue, Annan jokingly replyed; "It's a big world, we don't just have two cities."

But he said that, contrary to the report, added: "Nor outside the meeting."

In Baghdad on Wednesday, a Western diplomat said Blix might be invited to Iraq "to sign a memorandum on inspection terms". Annan said the talks with the Iraqis were "very useful and frank" and had, for the first time, focused on specific questions of disarmament.

"We did not discuss MOUs (memorandums of understanding)," he said. "We did not focus on specific resolutions."

Sabri also described the meeting as "useful, frank and focused," and told reporters that a date for another round of talks was being discussed.

"We continued our debate in the same positive spirit of cooperation that characterised our meeting in March," he said, referring to the first round of talks, on March 7. "Hopefully we shall continue this in the next round," Sabri said.

Annan and Sabri met one-on-one for about 10 minutes on Friday before joining their delegations for around an hour.

Annan and Sabri led the delegations in two sessions on Wednesday which lasted for a total of just over two hours.

On Thursday, Annan was in Washington and the talks here took place at the level of experts including Blix. Bureau Report