UNITED NATIONS, Aug 7: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Tuesday told Iraq in a letter that it must accept the Security Council’s terms for the return of weapons inspectors.

Annan was responding to Iraq’s invitation last week for chief inspector Hans Blix to visit Baghdad for technical talks. Those talks would centre on the return of inspectors who have been barred from the country for nearly four years.

“The Secretary-General’s response to the foreign minister of Iraq has been shared with members of the Security Council,” spokesman Fred Eckhard told reporters in New York.

Foreign Minister Naji Sabri had sent the letter on Thursday inviting Hans Blix, the Executive Chairman of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), to Iraq for technical discussions.

Talking to the reporters as he entered UN Headquarters Mr Annan, said his letter would “clarify that we welcome [Iraq’s] invitation, but that we would want to proceed along other lines.”

Asked about the position of Council members, he said that they wanted to see Iraq comply with the relevant UN resolutions. “They would want to see the inspectors go in and continue their work, and would want me to continue to work with [Baghdad] to get the inspectors back into Iraq,” he said.

During a separate press encounter, the President of the Security Council, John Negroponte of US confirmed this view. “I think everyone is on the same page as far as what is required of Iraq in regard to next steps and the full implementation of existing Security Council resolutions,”

In his reply on Tuesday, the secretary-general insisted that Iraq must follow the roadmap laid out by the Security Council and rejected its proposal to deal with outstanding issues about its alleged weapons of mass destruction.

The return of inspectors is a key demand of the Security Council and especially of the United States, which has accused Iraq of trying to rebuild its banned weapons programmes and of supporting terrorism.

President Bush, who has called for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to be replaced, has threatened unspecified consequences if inspectors are not allowed to return.

Under council resolutions, sanctions imposed after Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait cannot be lifted until UN inspectors certify that its biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons have been destroyed along with the long-range missiles to deliver them.

With members of the US Congress and senior US officials talking openly about war with Iraq, Saddam Hussein’s government is facing increasing pressure to let the inspectors back in — but whether Iraq will agree to the Security Council’s terms remains to be seen.

“I hope once they’ve read the letter, they will find their way to become more forthcoming,” Mr Annan said on Tuesday before sending the reply.