The United Nations chief weapons inspector, Richard Butler, has ended his talks in Baghdad without any progress.

Mr Butler has been trying to persuade Iraq to allow his arms monitors access to all sites where he believes prohibited weapons may be stored.

Richard Butler: Iraq plans "to take its chances" (0'49")

But he told a news conference that the meetings have failed to produce the co-operation he had hoped for.

He said Iraq decided to freeze discussions on the specific issue of inspections of presidential palaces until at least April in defiance of United Nations resolutions.

"Your announcement of a freezing ... flies in the face of Security Council decisions," Mr Butler told the Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz.

Earlier Mr Butler warned that Iraq should not doubt the will of the Security Council to force it to co-operate.

Saddam Hussein: Wants an end to sanctions

Meanwhile, the British Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, has accused Iraq of continuing to produce chemical weapons.

"Every single week Saddam Hussein is producing anthrax to fill two missile warheads," Mr Cook said.

Speaking in Hong Kong, he said the UN was resolved to press ahead with searching for weapons and he rejected Iraqi attempts to limit the scope of the inspections.

"Saddam Hussein currently claims 45 sites (as palaces). This strains incredulity," said Mr Cook.

Evaluation meetings

On Tuesday both sides agreed that experts from the five permanent Security Council members and Germany will take part next month in a series of "technical evaluation meetings".

These will focus on weighing up the all the aspects of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programme and the process used for checking for missile warheads and chemical agents.

Mr Butler said that the Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister insisted that further discussions on the inspection of presidential sites should be frozen until the results of the meetings are announced. Iraq expects the talks to lead to the closure of all the files on Iraq's weapons programmes and the lifting of sanctions.

BBC Baghdad correspondent Rageh Omaar explains why the Iraqis are blocking the weapons inspectors (3' 04")

Mr Aziz said that only after this would he and Mr Butler meet again to discuss the question of access to presidential palaces.

But the UN Security Council has demanded that the arms inspectors be granted immediate, full and unconditional access.

The chief arms inspector has warned that Iraq is making strong assumptions about what the technical evaluation talks will achieve.

Presidential palaces: off limits

The crisis re-emerged last week when Iraq has complained that the weapons teams were dominated by the United States and Britain, the two countries in the Security Council that favour a tough line against Baghdad.

Mr Butler is now returning to New York. He plans to brief the UN Security Council about his meetings in Iraq on Friday.
 

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