BAGHDAD, Feb 6: An Iraqi scientist sat down on Thursday for the first Iraqi interview with UN inspectors without official government monitors being present, a senior Iraqi official said here.

“One of the BW (biological weapons) scientists is now giving an interview privately,” Amer al-Saadi, a science advisor to President Saddam Hussein, told a press conference here.

A source at Iraq’s National Monitoring Center, which is the government’s liaison with UN weapons inspectors, identified the scientist as Sinan Abdel Hassan Mohi.

UN spokesman Hiro Ueki confirmed that the scientist had agreed to be interviewed in private.

Repeatedly, UN weapons inspectors have sought to speak alone with Iraqi scientists who have knowledge of the country’s alleged banned weapons programs.

Until Thursday, however, no scientist had agreed to meet with inspectors in the absence of a government official.—AFP