Iraq censures UN inspectors

Iraq has for the first time criticised the work of United Nations inspectors after they visited a presidential site on Tuesday.

The statement by the Iraqi foreign ministry said the inspection of the palace raised many questions.

The ministry asked whether it was the beginning of bad behaviour by the inspectors under pressure from the US and the UK, and whether the team were starting to spy like their predecessors, straying from the objectives set by the UN resolution.

The statement said the inspectors were now facing a test of their credibility and their promise to be objective and professional.

Dossier dismissed

The Iraqi Government has also officially reacted to the Iraq human rights dossier published by the UK Government on Monday, saying the report was full of lies.

The statement said that it was the US and the UK who were violating human rights daily by continuing to impose sanctions on Baghdad, and sending their jets to carry out air raids in the no-fly zones over the north and the south of Iraq.

An Iraqi spokesman said the return of the UN inspectors was proving that the last dossier published by the British Government - about Baghdad's weapons of mass destruction - was full of falsifications as well.

On Wednesday, a team of UN inspectors experts visited al-Tuwaitha - a nuclear facility and the site of the Osiraq reactor which was bombed by the Israelis in 1981.