VIENNA, Oct 1: UN and Iraqi officials agreed on Tuesday on arrangements for a return of arms inspectors to Iraq, the UN’s chief inspector Hans Blix said on Tuesday, adding that the world body would have access to “all sites” in the country.

Iraqi delegation chief Amir El-Sadi said he expected UN weapons inspectors in Baghdad within two weeks.

“Yes we are happy and we will accept an advance party in Baghdad in two weeks,” El-Sadi said.

Mr Blix said he would be reporting on the Vienna talks to the UN Security Council in New York on Thursday.

UN spokesmen said the inspectors did not need further authorization from the Security Council to go to Iraq but that the mission could be scuttled if the Security Council passed on new resolution demanded by the United States to toughen up conditions for inspections.

“On the question of access, it was clarified that all sites are subject to immediate, unconditional and unrestricted access,” Mr Blix said. But he said there would be “special procedures” for “eight presidential sites” which are covered by a memorandum of understanding of 1998, the year the inspections broke off.

Mr Blix said the presidential sites had not been discussed at the two-day meeting in Vienna.

He also said the Iraqi delegation had “handed over four CD ROMs containing the backlog of semi-annual monitoring declarations for the sites and items covered by the ongoing monitoring and verification plans for period June 1998 to July 2002.”—AFP