IRAQ: UN weapons inspectors searched for banned weapons deep in the heart of President Saddam Hussein's Baghdad palace yesterday and demanded Iraq's active help so they could get the job done.
It was unclear whether President Saddam was at his main office when seven carloads of inspectors drove into the vast al-Jamhoury palace compound where he is widely believed to conduct most of his presidential business.
Inspectors complained afterwards that during a 3½- hour visit they had to wait two hours for keys to open four safes. The team checked government office buildings but did not go inside presidential offices. The team leader would not say if any suspect materials were found. He said his experts took nothing from the safes.
Yesterday's UN visit was the second to a palace since inspectors resumed their search eight weeks ago after a four-year break.
A palace employee, Mr Wissam Essawi, told reporters the experts had asked employees what jobs they did, and all insisted they did administrative work which had nothing to do with banned weapons.
Meanwhile as President Bush raised the volume on the war of words with Baghdad on Tuesday, saying he was "sick and tired" of what he called Iraq's games and deception, Russia launched a bid to avert armed conflict.
Moscow, which has maintained closer ties than most with President Saddam's administration, said its top Iraq expert, Deputy Foreign Minister Mr Alexander Saltanov, would go to Baghdad to seek a diplomatic solution.
Yesterday, 3,000 marine commandos boarded the helicopter carrier Ocean to sail as part of Britain's biggest seaborne invasion task force in 20 years for possible war in Iraq.
Meanwhile on a trip to Moscow, the chief of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency, Mr Mohamed ElBaradei, told reporters: "I intend...to impress upon Iraq the need to shift gear from passive co-operation to active co-operation."
Mr ElBaradei has said he and fellow UN inspection chief Dr Hans Blix will go to Baghdad this weekend for some tough talking on whether Iraq has chemical, biological or nuclear weapons or long-range missiles.
The talks will be key to a major report the two are due to make to the Security Council on January 27th on Iraqi compliance."While the international community is ready to give us some more time, I am also aware that there is a certain degree of impatience in the international community," Mr ElBaradei said.
"We are going to intensify our inspection process in the next few weeks and months."