Crisis over as Saddam lets inspectors back to work

Iraq agreed yesterday to allow US arms inspectors back into the country to resume monitoring its weapons programme, ending a three-week crisis with the United Nations. America and Britain both claimed Iraq had won nothing in return. Harriet Martin, in Geneva, and Rupert Cornwell report.

Iraq, in a joint statement with Russia, announced yesterday that it would let all United States weapons inspectors return to the country, allowing the UN Special Commission on weapons inspection to resume its work.

Baghdad radio said Iraqi and Russian leaders had exchanged views which "resulted in an agreement to defuse the crisis. We are happy about it." It said the agreement gave Iraq hope that UN sanctions imposed after it invaded Kuwait in August 1990 would be lifted.

The announcement defuses a three-week-old stalemate between Iraq and the US which had precipitated a military build up in the Gulf, raising the threat of US retaliatory action. Though the US continued its arms build-up yesterday, it now seems unlikely that there will be any strikes.

Iraq had prevented the UN weapons inspectors team from gaining access to sites, and then barred the American members of the team from the country.

Yesterday's communique was released in Moscow and Baghdad after an emergency meeting in Geneva between the five permanent members of the Security Council - the US, Russia, France, Britain and China. During the meeting the Russian Foreign minister, Yevgeny Primakov, announced that the Iraqis had agreed to allow the weapons inspectors, including the same number of Americans, back unconditionally.

The agreement had been brokered during talks in Moscow earlier this week between the Iraqi deputy Prime Minster, Tariq Aziz, Mr Primakov and the Russian President, Boris Yeltsin. The meeting in Geneva stressed the "importance of the efforts in solidarity" of the permanent five and reiterated calls for "unconditional and complete fulfilment by Iraq of all the relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council."

Diplomatic sources described it as a "much needed unifying statement" after it became clear that only Britain was prepared to back US threat of military action against Iraqi non-compliance. After the meeting, the British Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, stressed that no deal had been struck with Saddam Hussein. "He has not won any compromise. There are no concessions. There is no deal. There is no commitment on the part of the United Nations permanent five to lift those sanctions," Mr Cook said.

The US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, said the Iraqis "are prepared to have the inspectors return unconditionally." Britain, the lone unequivocal supporter of the US through the crisis, yesterday doggedly insisted that President Saddam had gained nothing through his manoeuvrings of the past three weeks - other than to set back the date at which sanctions might ultimately be lifted.

"We're back to the status quo ante," a senior British diplomat said, stressing that Russia had made its undertakings to President Saddam to work for an easing of sanctions "on behalf of Russia only." As far as Britain was concerned, sanctions would only be removed when Iraq complied fully with Security Council resolutions. In the meantime, "quite a lot of ground" had to be made up, after the three-week absence of the inspection teams.

In return for allowing the resumption of weapons inspections diplomats anticipate that Iraq may win some limited concessions at a special Unscom meeting to be held in New York today.