UNITED NATIONS, Jan 2: Chief UN weapons Inspector, Hans Blix, is expected to go to Iraq on Jan 15, ahead of a crucial report to the UN Security Council which he is expected to submit on Jan 27, diplomats said.

Iraq has extended the invitation to Blix, in a letter sent by General Amir al-Saadi, an adviser to President Saddam Hussein, who said he wanted to review cooperation and discuss pending issues. The invitation was timed to discuss a pivotal report Blix must give to the Security Council on Jan 27, his first full analysis on Iraq’s cooperation with the inspectors and the accuracy of a 12,000-page weapons declaration its submitted last month.

Any determination by the UN Security Council that Baghdad is in “material breach” or failed to cooperate with the weapons inspectors under the provisions of the UNSC resolution 1441 could trigger a war against Baghdad led by the US.

“This report... is crucial for the Council to determine whether or not Baghdad “actively cooperated” with the UN weapons inspectors,” said Pakistan’s Ambass-ador Munir Akram who will sit in the Security Council for a two-year period.

Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is expected to go to Baghdad with Blix, UN officials said.

Blix is executive chairman of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC, in charge of inspec-ting Iraq’s chemical, biological and ballistic weapons programmes. ElBaradei fields the inspection teams.

Both Blix and ElBaradei are scheduled to brief the council on Jan 9, a follow-up to their initial Dec 19 assessment of Iraq’s declaration, at which time Blix pointed to several gaps in the document.

The 15-nation Security Council has to “assess” any “material breach” of Iraq’s declaration, based on reports from inspectors rather than just an analysis by the United States and its chief ally Britain. Otherwise, Washington will have difficulty building a political or military coalition for an attack, particularly among Arab nations.

BAGHDAD SLAMS: Baghdad on Thursday decried the UN Security Council’s expansion of a list of goods banned from export to Iraq.

UN Resolution 1454, which expands the list of barred so-called dual-use items, “is not just despicable, it also lacks legitimacy, coming at a time when the Security Council was supposed to set the stage for lifting the sanctions” in force since 1990, wrote Babel, which is run by President Saddam Hussein’s elder son, Uday.

The Security Council voted 13-0 Monday to extend by 60 the list of goods that are banned from export to Iraq, including about five dozen chemicals, drugs, electronic items and vehicles. Russia and Syria abstained after the US insisted on putting certain kinds of trucks on the list.—AFP