LONDON-NEW YORK: The UK wants Saddam Hussein to be forced to open up his so-called presidential palaces to UN weapons inspectors, in a major strengthening of the rules governing the work of inspectors in Iraq.

UK foreign secretary Jack Straw singled out Saddam’s presidential palaces as an example of where radical change was needed.

Mr Straw made clear that Britain was determined to prevent Iraq from barring access to its palaces by updating existing UN resolutions governing the work of inspectors, most notably resolution 1284.

“We do not think that 1284’s powers are sufficient,” the foreign secretary told British members of parliament (MPs) on the UK House of Commons foreign affairs committee. “They do not cover presidential palaces.”

His remarks came as the UK Foreign Office confirmed Mr Straw will intensify his diplomatic negotiations over Iraq by making his second visit in less than a year to Iran. Mr Straw will visit the country in the second week of October during a week long visit to the Gulf region.

Britain hopes to have agreed a tough new UN security resolution by then. If a text has been agreed, Mr Straw is likely to tell his counterparts during his trip that the best way to avoid military conflict would be to force Iraq to comply with weapons inspectors, most notably by opening up its presidential palaces.

Iraq infuriated the former UN chief weapons inspector, Richard Butler, in 1997 when it barred inspectors from visiting a series of large areas, which it designated as presidential or sovereign sites. The US and Britain said Iraq used the sites to hide key documents.

Baghdad indicated last week that it was determined to preserve such sites when it said inspectors would have to respect the “sovereignty and political independence” of Iraq.

London underlined its anger over Iraq’s use of presidential palaces in its dossier this week by displaying an aerial photo of an area which was designated as such a site. The Queen’s Buckingham Palace in London would have fitted into a tiny area in the middle of the “palace”, the dossier claimed in an attempt to show the site was used for more than accommodating Saddam.

The dossier was met with almost universal scorn. Germany, whose newly-elected chancellor Gerhard Schroder has insisted that his forces will take no part in a military attack against Iraq, refused to endorse Britain’s warning about weapons of mass destruction. “What we read there does not differ from what the German government already knew,” government spokesman Uwe-Karsten Heye said.

The Russian foreign minister Igor Ivanov warned against building “a big propaganda campaign around this paper”. Russia, which initially said it saw no need for a new resolution in the wake of the Iraqi offer on inspectors, indicated yesterday that it was happy to take part in negotiations on a new resolution.

These are expected to start in earnest today when the US is expected to table its draft resolution in New York. But there were signs that the resolution was being delayed by differences within the US administration. “We’re waiting for Washington,” one western diplomat said, noting there was still a range of views in the US capital as to the “viability” of inspections.

France’s alternative — which would require a second resolution authorising the use of force after President Saddam had been deemed to have failed to comply with inspections — still loomed as an obstacle to approval of a US draft.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service.