The head of the United Nations nuclear agency Mr Mohamed ElBaradei said after a meeting with Iraqi officials in Baghdad today that "constructive" disarmament talks were "making progress".
"We are having good constructive meetings," Mr ElBaradei told reporters after he and chief UN inspector Dr Hans Blix held two- and-a-half hours of talks with senior Iraqi officials Dr Amir al- Saadi, President Saddam Hussein's scientific adviser, and General Hussam Mohammad Amin at the Iraqi Foreign Ministry.
"We are still going to meet tomorrow. We are making progress," he added without elaborating. No other official talked to reporters after the meeting.
The two top inspectors had arrived in Baghdad earlier in the day in a last-ditch effort to get full Iraqi cooperation and more information of Iraq's arms declaration.
Demands that the inspection process be given a chance picked up steam yesterday when a wave of anti-war protests rolled around the world from Tokyo to London and the United States - where tens of thousands attended rallies.
Dr Blix said on arrival on Baghdad that it was in Iraq's power to avert war.
"We don't think war is inevitable. We think the inspection process we are conducting is the peaceful alternative, and it requires very active Iraqi cooperation," he said.
