BAGHDAD, March 24: Iraq said on Sunday it was ready to receive an American team to probe the fate of a US pilot shot down over Iraq at the start of the Gulf War in 1991.

Lieutenant Commander Michael Scott Speicher was lost on the first day of the war when his Navy F-18 attack jet was apparently hit and crashed in a fireball over Iraq on January 17, 1991.

Washington listed him as the first casualty of the war, but reclassed him as “missing in action” in January 2001 following evidence he might have survived the crash.

Iraq says Speicher is dead, but Washington says Baghdad has ignored requests for an explanation as to his fate after the crash.

“To prove our good will in this regard and to refute repeated American allegations against Iraq, we express readiness of concerned Iraqi parties to receive an American team to visit Iraq to probe into the (US pilot) issue,” an Iraqi Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

He said the investigation had “to be accompanied by an American media team for coverage and documentation under the supervision of the International Committee of the Red Cross”.

It must also include the former leader of the UN weapons inspection team in Iraq, Scott Ritter, now a vocal critic of American policy on Iraq.

US Vice President Dick Cheney told CBS’s “Face the Nation” programme he was unaware of the offer. “I would have to take a look at the report...and see whether or not this is a serious proposition...,” he said.

The Washington Times newspaper reported on March 11 that US intelligence agencies had obtained new information indicating Speicher was alive and in captivity in Iraq.

But a US official, who asked not to be named, disputed the report. “There is no evidence indicating he is still alive,” he said.

Although no wreckage was initially found, defence officials said Pentagon documents showed US spy satellites had later detected what was described as a man-made symbol at the crash site. They declined to give details.

Iraq’s announcement comes two weeks after the United States brought up the subject of Speicher at a meeting in Geneva of a Tripartite Commission grouping Iraq, the International Red Cross and the Gulf War allies.—Reuters