NOVO-OGORYOVO (Russia), April 29: Russian President Vladimir Putin, setting himself at odds with the United States, said on Tuesday UN sanctions should not be lifted against Iraq until the existence of any banned weapons there had been clarified.

Speaking at a news conference after talks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair who, like the United States, wants a quick removal of the United Nations sanctions, Putin said it was important now the war was over to establish whether there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

“Sanctions can only be removed if there is no suspicion (about the existence of such weapons),” the Kremlin leader said.

Putin, who along with the leaders of France and Germany opposed the US-led war against Iraq, said the threat of Iraq holding weapons of mass destruction had not been fully eliminated even now the war was over.

“So far we have no answers and as long as we have no answers we cannot feel safe. We need to have a legal basis to put an end to this,” he said, adding that the United Nations was the only body competent to do this.

“Sanctions were imposed on Iraq on the basis of suspicions that it held weapons of mass destruction. Sanctions can only be removed if there is no suspicion and it is only the Security Council that can remove these sanctions because it imposed them in the first place,” he said.

Blair, who went into the talks hoping to convince Putin to agree to an early removal of the UN sanctions, warned against the repeat of the pre-war UN confrontation and the danger of Russia and West European countries constantly opposing the United States in international crises.

“The question is, can we find a way forward together for the future...or whether we are going to have the standoff we have had for the past few months,” Blair said.

Putin also called for the UN humanitarian oil-for-food programme, used during the years of sanctions against Iraq when it was ruled by Saddam Hussein, to be extended.

“Today when there is a power vacuum in Iraq we must ensure that the oil-for-food programme is implemented under most strict control by the United Nations,” he told reporters.

Iraq has not sold crude under the programme since shortly before the war because there is no legal authority in Baghdad.—Reuters