Annan says had frank talks with Iraqi official

DOHA, Qatar (Reuters) -- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan met Iraqi Vice-President Ezzat Ibrahim Monday to discuss deadlocked efforts to ease a decade of international sanctions against Baghdad.

Annan told reporters the meeting was organized to discuss Iraq's relations with the United Nations and to "find ways and means to break the current deadlock."

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He described the talks as "frank and useful" but declined to give further details.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf said: "We have agreed to open a comprehensive dialogue between the United Nations and Baghdad without preconditions."

"They are preparing their ideas and Iraq will prepare its own ideas and brief the secretary general on a meeting that will be held either in Baghdad or in New York," he told reporters.

The meeting was held on the sidelines of the three-day Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) summit which opened in Qatar Sunday.

An Iraqi official said earlier that Annan had requested the meeting, describing it as "more than a general discussion. It will certainly touch on Iraq's rejection of Security Council Resolution 1284."

The resolution offers an easing of trade sanctions, imposed on Iraq for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, if Baghdad allows inspectors with the power to dismantle Iraq's weapons of mass destruction to resume their work.

But Iraq has repeatedly said it would not accept a new U.N. arms inspection team, arguing that it has already destroyed all its weapons of mass destruction.

Sahaf earlier told reporters the U.N. blockade was "crumbling," saying more and more European and Arab countries were resuming trade ties with Iraq and challenging the no-fly zones policed by U.S. and British forces in the Gulf.

"This blockade is being dismantled despite 10 years of repeated attacks by the United States and Britain," he added.

U.N. inspectors have been barred from Iraq since the last team left in December 1998. It withdrew shortly before U.S. and British planes launched a four-day air campaign after accusing Iraq was hindering the work of arms inspectors.

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