January 25, 2000
Web posted at: 9:54 p.m. EST (0254 GMT)

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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A five-member team of International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors have ended a check of nuclear material in Iraq, and the team leader said he was satisfied with Iraqi cooperation.

The IAEA team, which left Tuesday, had no connection with a suspended U.N. arms verification program in Iraq. Iraq had allowed the IAEA inspections under the terms of a 1968 nuclear non-proliferation treaty, of which it is a signatory. The team's objective was to verify that the nuclear stocks are not being used for military purposes.

"It went well, and we had good collaboration with our (Iraqi) counterparts," said team leader Ahmad Abu-Zahra as the group prepared to leave Baghdad after completing its task. The inspectors began their work Friday.

IAEA and Iraqi officials repeatedly stressed that Abu-Zahra's task was not part of the stringent inspections that finally broke down and led to U.S.-British airstrikes in December 1998.

Baghdad has since refused to allow the arms inspectors to return and last month rejected a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for new inspections in return for easing sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Those inspections are designed to assure that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction.

VIDEO CNN's Jane Arraf reports on the U.N. team's completed mission. Windows Media 28K 80K     MESSAGE BOARD Situation in Iraq

A U.N. resolution last December revived the stalled inspections, but the Security Council still hasn't determined who will lead the new commission to oversee them.

Abu-Zahra and his inspectors spent most of their five days at the nuclear facility of Tuweitha, 25 kilometers (16 miles) east of Baghdad, where Iraq's remaining quantities of low-grade uranium are stored.

IAEA has sealed 1.8 tons of low-level uranium and other nuclear-related material at the site.

IAEA, an independent nuclear weapon monitoring agency, has said it cannot certify whether Baghdad has revived its nuclear program without more detailed inspections. But those will have to wait until the United Nations has a wider agreement with Iraq on the issue.

Under the 1991 Gulf War cease-fire, Iraq must rid itself of nuclear, chemical and biological arms as well as long-range missiles.

The United Nations has to ensure that Baghdad is not in a position to acquire or manufacture such arms in the future. U.N. trade sanctions will not be lifted until Baghdad proves to inspectors that it has fulfilled those terms.

Iraq has consistently denied trying to develop nuclear weapons but admitted carrying out related research.

Meanwhile, France sought to break the impasse over the choice of a new U.N. weapons inspector to Iraq by informally proposing the name of Hans Blix from Sweden.

French envoys said there had been little opposition so far from key Security Council members, who have been deadlocked for weeks in selecting an executive chairman for the new U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, or UNMOVIC.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan attempted to break the impasse last week by nominating Rolf Ekeus, also a Swede, for the post. Ekeus headed the first U.N. arms inspection team in Iraq.

But France, Russia and China opposed Ekeus, saying the new agency needs to make a fresh start.

"You know we like the Swedes," French Ambassador Alain Dejammet quipped, in confirming his support for the 71-year-old Blix, who headed the Vienna-based IAEA, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, for 16 years until January 1998.

The U.S. position on Blix remained unclear, although diplomats said American officials had not signaled any open opposition.

CNN Correspondent Jane Arraf and Reuters contributed to this report.

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