The head of the UN's Iraqi arms monitoring commission said on Friday that he expected to have a roster of 72 trained and qualified inspectors by the end of next week. UN officials said that this was between a third and half the number of inspectors which the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) would need if Iraq allowed it to start work. In his quarterly report to the Security Council, UNMOVIC chairman Hans Blix said that the commission would complete its second month-long training course for inspectors on December 8.
Iraq has said that it would not allow the UN to resume inspections, which were halted when the former commission, known as UNSCOM, left Iraq two years ago on the eve of a bombing campaign by the United States and Britain.
But a spokesman for UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said that on Wednesday that Annan hoped to renew talks with top Iraqi officials early in the new year and would try to persuade them to let UNMOVIC start work.
UNMOVIC was set up on December 17 by Security Council resolution 1284.
For the first time, the resolution offered Iraq the possibility of having UN sanctions suspended, by cooperating fully with the new arms inspectors.

Bureau Report