CAIRO, July 20: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors will return to Iraq in the coming days, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, said here on Tuesday.

"The IAEA will send a team of inspectors to Iraq in the coming days following an official request from Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari," Mr ElBaradei told journalists on his arrival here.

"The return of inspectors to Iraq is an absolute necessity, not to search for weapons of mass destruction (WMD), but to draft the final report on the absence of WMDs in Iraq," he said. -AFP