The United Nations is sending two experts to survey the location and boundaries of Iraq's eight presidential sites at the centre of the weapons inspection crisis.
Iraq's UN ambassador, Mr Nizar Hamdoon, said the two experts would arrive tomorrow. The UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan, later confirmed that a two-man technical team would travel to Iraq to examine the controversial sites over the next few days.
"There are disputes between different parties, including Mr Butler, about how to define those sites," Mr Hamdoon said, referring to the chief UN weapons inspector, Mr Richard Butler, who told the Security Council after visiting Baghdad last month that the sites included a large number of buildings within each presidential compound.
Iraq has challenged parts of Mr Butler's report and the two experts are apparently being sent to define just how extensive the sites are.
Iraq has said its presidential sites could be inspected, but only once, during a period of one or two months, and that the inspection teams would answer to the Security Council, not to the UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) in charge of eliminating Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. "UNSCOM is the adversary," the Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Tariq Aziz, said. The United States, Britain and other council members insist that UNSCOM's mandate and integrity cannot be compromised, that its inspectors must have unfettered access and that there can be no time limits on inspections.
Iraq is anxious for Mr Annan himself to visit Baghdad to try to resolve the crisis and prevent military action by the US and Britain, which have massed ships and planes in the Gulf.
Mr Annan is also under strong pressure from Russia and some other members of the Security Council to travel to Baghdad.
Meanwhile, the President of the European Commission, Mr Jacques Santer, in Beirut yesterday joined the chorus of political leaders calling for a peaceful solution to the crisis and warning that a military strike against Iraq could destabilise the entire Middle East.
In a surprise move, Britain has decided to give diplomacy more time and has proposed special arrangements for inspecting President Saddam Hussein's palaces as long as UN weapons teams can work unimpeded. Sir John Weston, Britain's ambassador to the UN, announced the concession in the closed session of the five permanent members of the Security Council, which convened yesterday to work on proposals Mr Annan may take to Baghdad next week.
Meanwhile, Spain has toned down an earlier show of support for US strikes on Iraq, ruling out the use of Spanish airbases by US bombers and offering to bolster UN inspection teams with experts from Spain and other countries.
In Tokyo, President Aleksander Kwasniewski of Poland voiced his readiness to send personnel and equipment to counter any Iraqi use of chemical weapons. In the Middle East, pro-Iraqi demonstrators took to the streets of Cairo, Amman and the West Bank city of Ramallah to express solidarity with their fellow Arabs. There were reports of rioting and clashes with the police in some cities.