Iraq has said it will not allow the United Nations to resume monitoring of its suspected weapons of mass destruction.

The move follows the UN's appointment in January of a new chief weapons inspector to try and break a deadlock that has prevailed for over a year.

The state-run Iraq News Agency (INA) quoted Vice-President Taha Yasin Ramadan as saying there would be "no return of the so-called inspection teams".

"We reject infiltration by spies using such cover," he told a visiting Russian envoy.

Sanctions and weapons monitoring have been in force since Iraq's short-lived invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

In late 1998, Iraq expelled the inspectors, prompting the United States and Britain to begin air strikes which have continued ever since.

In December, the UN passed a resolution demanding that inspections resume, and replacing the UN Special Commission (Unscom) with the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (Unmovic).

Sanctions call

Mr Ramadan told Nikolai Kartuzov, Russia's ambassador-at-large, that Iraq "is not committed to Resolution 1284 and is not under obligation" to implement it, INA said.

"It is a resolution which the United States has drafted to realise its aggressive intentions against Iraq."

Mr Kartuzov has met other senior Iraqi leaders since his arrival in Baghdad, among them Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz.

State-run newspapers on Thursday quoted Mr Aziz as telling him that Iraq would not co-operate with the UN to implement the resolution.

"The resolution is a bad rewrite of previous Security Council resolutions which reflect the failure of the council to implement its commitments toward Iraq," al-Thawra quoted Mr Aziz as saying.

Iraqi leaders have repeatedly rejected UN attempts to restart arms monitoring, but have stopped short of giving formal notice of their stand.

Iraq says it has no more banned weapons and is demanding a complete lifting of UN sanctions as a condition for the return of the inspectors.