September 19, 2002	Thursday	Rajab 11, 1423

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LONDON, Sept 18: British prime minister Tony Blair expressed scepticism about the Iraqi offer of allowing UN inspectors.

In his comments since the Iraqi offer, the prime minister urged the international community to “keep up the pressure” on Saddam Hussein despite his offer to let weapons inspectors back into Iraq without condition.

He said: “Nobody should be in any doubt as he has played around for years”.

Mr Blair said that Saddam Hussein has accepted the UN demand only after coming under pressure. He said that it is very important that the world community keeps up its pressure on him to make sure the weapons inspectors actually go in — “not just that he says they can go in but they actually go in and that they can do their job.”

The British government is sceptic that Saddam Hussein had simply bought himself a massive time to play another political game. Despite this scepticism in the government circles there are fears that support for tough action would be badly hit when members of the British parliament would meet to discuss Iraq next Tuesday.