Iraq has reached an agreement with the head of the United Nations inspectors to begin technical evaluations of the process of checking for weapons.

But there has been no word of progress in a row over Iraq's attempts to restrict UN arms inspections.

The technical meetings will be attended by experts from all five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany, the Iraqi news agency reported.

The small step towards a resolution in the Gulf crisis came out of the continuing talks between the UN arms chief, Richard Butler, the Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister, Tariq Aziz, and Oil Minister, Amer Mohammed Rashid.

The technical evaluations, beginning early next month, will start by looking at missile warheads and the VX nerve agent, Iraq said.

But a large part of the process will be attempting to settle disputes over exactly what weapons the country still possesses.

Talks continuing

The two sides in Baghdad are preparing for a fresh round of talks on Tuesday evening.

There were no reports of progress from their initial meeting on the key issues of the balance of nationalities in the UN inspection teams nor on the May deadline President Saddam Hussein set for their departure.

Before the first round of talks on Monday evening, Mr Butler ruled out a hasty end to the weapons inspectors' work to comply with Iraqi wishes but suggested a more balanced composition of team members might be sought.

He said the inspectors would only leave when they were satisfied Iraq no longer possessed weapons of mass destruction, which is prohibited under UN sanctions imposed at the end of the Gulf War.

Build up to conflict continues

As efforts for a diplomatic resolution continue in Baghdad, US troops in the Gulf have been showing off their fire-power available should the talks breakdown.

"We are here, we are ready and we have great striking power," Rear Admiral John Nathman told visiting journalists aboard the USS Nimitz aircraft-carrier.

"The UN Security Council is trying to resolve the crisis peacefully but needs the leverage of the military option and that's what we are doing here," Mr Nathman, commander of one of two American naval task forces in the Gulf, said.

He added:" We are within striking range of southern Iraq and we have tremendous capability."

Nimitz and the other aircraft-carrier in the Gulf, USS George Washington, each provide a base for around 100 planes.

From the boats, the aircraft police the "no-fly zone" imposed over southern Iraq in 1991.

However, the Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister has accused the US planes of "acts of provocation by overflying civilian zones at low altitude and launching decoy flares."

In a letter to the UN Security Council, Mr Aziz said aircraft had invade Iraqi air-space on 21,709 occasions in 1997.

More than 19,000 of these violations took place in southern Iraq, the letter said and the Americans were mainly responsible.
 

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