BAGHDAD/WASHINGTON, 20 January 2003 — The head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog reported progress yesterday after flying to Baghdad to demand that Iraq actively volunteer information on its weapons programs to avert the threat of war. Mohamed El-Baradei flew in from Cyprus with chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix in what Blix had said was a last-ditch bid to get Iraq’s full cooperation before they report back to the UN Security Council on Jan. 27.

The ensuing debate may be crucial to deciding whether the United States launches a war on Iraq that it has threatened in order to enforce its demand that Baghdad come clean on alleged nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs.

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in Washington that the United States would know “in a matter of weeks” whether Iraq was cooperating fully with the inspectors. Blix and El-Baradei spent two-and-a-half hours at the Foreign Ministry with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s scientific adviser Amir Al-Saadi and Gen. Hussam Muhammad Amin, head of Iraq’s National Monitoring Directorate.

“We are having good, constructive meetings,” El-Baradei told reporters. “We are still going to meet tomorrow. We are making progress,” he added, without elaborating. The two men are due to leave Baghdad today. Demands that the inspection process be given a chance picked up steam on Saturday when a wave of anti-war protests rolled around the world from Tokyo to London and the United States — where tens of thousands attended celebrity-led rallies.

Blix said on arrival on Baghdad that it was in Iraq’s power to avert war. “We don’t think war is inevitable. We think the inspection process we are conducting is the peaceful alternative, and it requires very active Iraqi cooperation,” he said. El-Baradei’s spokeswoman Melissa Fleming underlined the inspectors’ message of the last few days: “What we are looking for is proof that they have destroyed weapons, proof that they haven’t produced (weapons). We are saying Iraq has to make the effort itself to prove it, not just open doors.”

The inspections have yet to uncover compelling evidence of banned weapons programs, but the United States has said they are designed as a test of cooperation with a UN disarmament resolution rather than an effort to find hidden arms.

Meanwhile, Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, yesterday received a message from Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad. The message was handed to the crown prince by Syrian Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Farouk Shara. Prince Abdullah also met with Jordanian Prime Minister Ali Abu Ragheb and reviewed major international developments.

The crown prince later received a telephone call from Pakistani Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali. The two leaders discussed major Islamic and international developments as well as issues of mutual concern.

In Iraq, UN inspectors teams headed for at least seven sites in search of traces of the weapons programs that Iraq says it has eradicated. Blix had said before leaving Cyprus that Saturday’s discovery of documents at the home of an Iraqi scientist was a worrying indication that Iraq was choosing to hide relevant papers that it should be actively delivering to the inspectors.

UN inspectors had raided the scientist’s house and found 3,000 pages of material apparently related to enrichment of uranium that could be used for nuclear weapons. “Iraq has an obligation to give a full declaration, so they (documents) should have been given. Why are they still there? Are there more?” he said.

Global protests on Saturday underlined growing anxiety at the prospect of war in the oil-rich Gulf region. From Tokyo to Cairo, Paris to San Francisco, demonstrators staged one of the biggest waves of anti-war protests since the United States and its ally Britain began pouring warplanes, ships and tens of thousands of troops into the Gulf region.

Organizers estimated a turnout of 50,000 in San Francisco and 500,000 on the national Mall in Washington, some holding placards reading “No Blood for Oil” and “Would Jesus Bomb Them?” Though US opinion polls have shown broad support for ousting Saddam, a Newsweek survey found 60 percent of Americans wanted to take more time to explore non-military solutions.

Iraq and fellow Arab countries are intensifying high-level meetings in a bid to prevent a war. Saddam Hussein has sent two senior officials to neighboring countries in the past few days, while Egypt, Syria, Libya and Turkey have organized various initiatives and meetings to stave off war.

Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz traveled Saturday to Damascus, joining a cousin of Saddam, Ali Hassan Al-Majid, both of whom carried undisclosed messages from the president. There was no explanation for the presence of two senior Iraqi officials in the Syrian capital.

Anti-war protests in Europe flared again yesterday against British and US military preparations for a strike on Iraq, ahead of another rally planned in the US capital. Participation was lower than massive demonstrations staged on Saturday across the world, but thousands more turned out to call for peace in Belgium, Britain, Spain and Turkey. (Agencies)