UNITED NATIONS, April 22: As France called for immediate suspension of UN sanctions against Iraq on Tuesday, the chief of UN weapons inspectors, Hans Blix, told the UN Security Council that the UN weapons inspection team should go back to Iraq and resume work to verify discovery of any new weapons of mass destruction.

However, as Mr Blix spoke at the Security Council, the White House expressed scepticism at the return of UN weapons team which could create another problem in the Council.

But France’s UN ambassador’s proposal to immediately suspend sanctions against Iraq and phasing out the UN oil-for-food programme surprised most diplomats who expected France to wait for a final report from the UN weapons inspectors.

While all UN Security Council members favored eventually ending the sanctions imposed on Baghdad after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, this was now linked by past Security Council resolutions to a certification of Iraqi disarmament, French ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere said.

“So meanwhile, we could suspend the sanctions and adjust the oil-for-food (programme) with an idea of its phasing out,” he told reporters following a briefing by Mr Blix.

Meanwhile, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer when asked if the administration expected UN inspectors to return any time soon, said the United States and its war allies were doing that job.

“The coalition has taken on responsibility for the dismantling of Iraq’s WMD and missile programs, which is part of the international community’s shared goal...,” Fleischer told reporters. “We are looking forward, not backward. Saddam Hussein’s regime is gone, and we will need to reassess the framework design to disarm the regime given the new facts on the ground,” he added.

Russia’ another permanent member of the Security Council asserted that the UN Security Council should lift the sanctions on Iraq only when international weapons inspectors say the country is free of illegal arms.

The US relationship with chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix has been an uneasy one.

Mr Blix on Tuesday questioned intelligence pointing to Iraqi weapons of mass destruction used by the United States and Britain to justify invading the country.

Addressing the UN Security Council in a closed-door session Mr Blix expressed his readiness to field an inspection team for UN verification of whether Iraq has weapons of mass destruction may be the key to lifting UN economic sanctions on Iraq as pushed by President George W. Bush.