VIENNA, Jan 18: UN atomic agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei said on Saturday that weapons inspectors in Iraq should be allowed to keep working after Jan 27, when the Security Council will be briefed on the situation.

“To fulfill their mission, they will need some more time, a few months more,” ElBaradei said in Vienna. “Inspectors should be able to work beyond this date.”

The United States could act on its threat of war against Iraq after that date, and Washington has been pushing to hold the arms inspections to a tight timetable.

But ElBaradei said the 27th was “not a cutoff date”, echoing calls from European leaders to give arms inspections more time.

Blix complaint: Chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix said on Saturday Iraq had not given his inspectors “genuine cooperation” and the world was no closer to knowing if Baghdad possessed weapons of mass destruction.

Blix, who arrived in Cyprus on way to Baghdad, said he would impress on Iraqi officials the “seriousness” of failing to help his inspectors in their search for any nuclear, biological or chemical weapons.

“There has been prompt access. There has been access everywhere. That is fine. But on substance there has not been sufficient cooperation. We need to have sincere and genuine cooperation,” he said.

Blix and International Atomic Energy Agency General-Director Mohamed ElBaradei said that during their two-day visit to Iraq they plan to confront Iraqi officials with big gaps in the 12,000-page weapons declaration Iraq submitted to the United Nations last month.

“This (visit) is a stock-taking of what has taken place since we last visited (in mid-November when the inspections started),” Blix said.

“We will talk about the declaration which we do not think answers the questions raised in the past.”

Asked how much time the inspectors needed to complete their task, Blix replied: “If we had their cooperation and it was sincere and genuine it would be fast.”

“We are not closer because there are too many gaps in it (the Iraqi declaration) and the world would like to be assured that Iraq is rid of weapons of mass destruction. And until we inspectors have been convinced of that we cannot so report to the Security Council.”

Weapons inspections have intensified ahead of a report to the UN on Jan 27.—Reuters