US issues fresh Iraq warning

Iraq has been under UN sanctions for years

The White House has issued a warning to Baghdad that what it called its refusal to allow private interviews with Iraqi weapons scientists was "unacceptable" and might bring war closer.

To protect the peace, Iraq must allow and encourage its scientists to participate in private interviews

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer

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The Iraqis say their weapons scientists are free to make their own decisions about whether or not they want to be interviewed.

A new request has been made by United Nations weapons inspectors to be allowed to conduct private interviews with Iraqi scientists on Saturday.

Friday's White House remarks come only days before UN weapons inspectors present their first formal report to the Security Council.

The Bush administration has decided that the lack of private meetings between the UN weapons inspectors and the scientists should now be put at the top of the list of complaints about Saddam Hussein's conduct, says the BBC's Washington correspondent Justin Webb.

KEY DATES

27 Jan - First full report on inspections presented to UN

29 Jan - UN discusses report

31 Jan - Bush meets Blair

15 Feb - Anti-war protests across Europe

27 Mar - Blix submits new report to UN

Next steps in full

The inspectors will report on Monday that co-operation with Iraq in the search for illegal weaponry is satisfactory, but could be much better, a spokesman for the UN's atomic energy watchdog said on Friday.

On Thursday, the Iraqi authorities said six scientists the UN inspectors wanted to interview in private had refused to meet them, unless Iraqi officials were present.

UN inspectors have been back in Iraq for two months, searching for evidence of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons in Iraq, which denies possessing them.

Lack of evidence

Visits continued on Friday, but a UN laboratory analysing collected samples said no evidence had yet emerged of a nuclear weapons programme.

Iraq itself says it expects the weapons inspectors' report to be neither white, nor black.

After further signs of division emerged among UN Security Council members about the prospect of military action, Russia and Germany made a joint call for more diplomatic efforts to resolve the Iraqi crisis peacefully.

President Vladimir Putin and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said they had agreed that all political options must be exhausted and stressed that weapons inspectors must be allowed the time they need to complete their mission.