LONDON: Saddam Hussein has “thrown a monkey wrench” into US war plans, Scott Ritter, the former UN weapons inspector, said on Friday, designed as a “a bold diplomatic move to derail this headlong rush towards war”.

The invitation to Hans Blix, the chief weapons inspector, for talks in Baghdad, is the “the exact opposite direction the Bush administration wants”, Ritter said.

“If you return weapons inspectors, you engage the machinery of diplomacy that will lead to the lifting of sanctions and thereby the freeing up of Saddam Hussein to continue ruling in Iraq,” he told BBC Radio.

Analysts agreed that Iraq’s manoeuvre represents a setback for Washington hawks but they were uncertain whether it should be seen as a genuine offer or just an attempt to buy time.

“I really don’t see Saddam Hussein letting in the inspectors on the terms the Americans are pushing for,” said Daniel Neep, of the Royal United Services Institute in London.

He suggested that the invitation to Blix — delivered by letter to the UN secretary general on Thursday — might have been calculated to stymie any US plans for a surprise attack on Baghdad this autumn.

“One view is that there’s nothing new in this. It could just be another line in the propaganda war,” said Toby Dodge of the Royal Institute for International Affairs.

“Possibly the loudness of the war drums wasn’t quite carrying to Baghdad. If that was the case, then you could read this as a dawning.”

Previously, he said, Iraq had attempted to trade weapons inspections for the lifting of sanctions, but there are signs that it may be shifting its ground. “It could now be trying to trade weapons of mass destruction for a commitment to the regime’s survival.”

Burhan Chalabi, an Iraqi-born British businessman who has contacts in Baghdad, insisted that the Iraqi offer is “very serious”.

Iraq is willing to let the inspectors back, he said. “All they are worried about is that the Americans might move the goalposts.”

But Iraq will face an uphill struggle convincing the world of its sincerity. Since last March, the UN has tried three times to persuade Iraq to re-admit the weapons inspectors.

Iraq has also muddied the waters with facetious ploys, such as inviting Tony Blair to hunt for illicit weapons in Baghdad.

The latest Iraqi letter is described as more moderate in tone and lacking the usual rhetoric. UN sources said it would be passed directly to the Security Council for a decision on how to respond.

Ahmed Fawzi, director of the UN information centre in London, said Baghdad’s initiative, if serious, was a “positive development”.

Russia, which recently sent a high-level delegation to Baghdad for talks on “unblocking the Iraqi problem”, was less cautious in its welcome.

For Iraq, the move on weapons inspections is also an opportunity to isolate the US further by appearing more reasonable than the Americans.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service.