The United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, has formally nominated the Swedish ambassador to Washington, Rolf Ekeus, to head the new arms inspection body for Iraq.

A UN spokesman said Mr Annan was now awaiting a response from the Security Council.

Russia and China have already said they will oppose the nomination of Mr Ekeus on the grounds that he won't be acceptable to Iraq.

In a first reaction, the Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister, Tariq Aziz, confirmed this view.

He rejected Mr Ekeus, who he said had allowed the arms inspectors to spy on Iraq previously.

Mr Ekeus was the first executive chairman of UNSCOM, the former UN weapons monitoring commission in Iraq after the Gulf war in 1991.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service