Iraq threatens action if sanctions are not lifted

Iraq has condemned the United States for what it describes as a deliberate attempt to deadlock the work of the UN Security Council so that it will not lift international sanctions.

After a meeting of the Iraqi leadership, a spokesman said Baghdad would not stand idly by if the Americans continued, as he put it, to play for time.

The spokesman gave no further explanation.

Earlier, Iraq accused the chief UN weapons inspector, Richard Butler, of seeking to step up tension by saying the Iraqi authorities were concealing weapons of mass destruction at so-called presidential sites, to which UN inspectors have been denied access.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service