LOS ANGELES: The past week has seen an unprecedented diplomatic offensive on the part of Iraq. This appears to be driven by the harsh rhetoric emanating from the Bush administration since the president’s identification of Iraq as part of an “axis of evil.”

Whether or not Iraq is sincere, the Baghdad regime’s burst of diplomacy appears to be designed to derail a drive for war from within the Bush administration that has been gaining momentum at a startling rate.

Iraq has dispatched representatives to Europe, Russia, China and the Arab world to distance itself from President Bush’s characterization of it as evil and to discourage the war-like undertones of such a label.

These efforts have borne instant fruit. The “axis of evil” formulation has been criticized in almost every corner of the world as ill-conceived and counterproductive.

There was, however, one issue that caused trouble for Iraq: the return of UN weapons inspectors. The focus by Bush on the matter of weapons inspections prior to his State of the Union address resonated in many capitals around the globe, even those sympathetic to Iraq or overtly opposed to renewed military conflict.

The ambiguities that exist concerning Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction programmes are troubling. The shadow cast by Sept 11, combined with the spectre of weapons of mass destruction, made the issue of the return of weapons inspectors to Iraq suddenly relevant.

Russia, China and Turkey all have urged Iraq to allow the inspectors back to work. Iraq was cool to these overtures until, in a stunning recent reversal, Baghdad communicated to the UN secretary-general its willingness to engage in discussions on the matter.

In so doing, Iraq has exposed the Achilles’ heel of the Bush administration’s policy: Is the US truly serious about weapons inspections?

While Iraq has stated that it has set no preconditions for any discussions regarding inspectors, it is widely recognized in the UN that the issue of economic sanctions is firmly linked to weapons inspections. Any discussion of sanctions is the last thing the Bush administration would want.

The Iraqi diplomatic offensive has thrown the administration into a quandary. By showing a willingness to discuss the issue of inspectors, Iraq has trumped those who have maintained that Saddam would never permit their return. Baghdad now has raised the question as to whether US support for inspectors has been merely rhetorical, a verbal foil designed to support the primary policy objective of removing Saddam from power. —Dawn/LAT-WP News Service (c) Los Angeles Times.