UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged Iraq to allow UN weapon inspectors to return after the country's deputy Prime Minister reiterated that Baghdad has no intention of cooperating with a new UN inspection agency.

“I hope they will reconsider,” Annan told reporters on Tuesday.
But Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz gave no hint of any change in Baghdad's longstanding opposition to return of UN inspectors in separate meetings with French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine and several Arab states.
“Unfortunately, Mr. Tariq Aziz simply repeated the reasons why Iraq feels it won't concern itself with this resolution and why they don't want to cooperate on that basis,” Vedrine said of his meeting Monday with the Iraqi minister.

Bureau Report