U.N. outlines agenda for talks with Iraq

By CNN United Nations Producer Ronni Berke

UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- Disarmament and humanitarian issues will be the focus of next week's talks between Iraq and the United Nations, a U.N.spokesman said Friday.

Fred Eckhard said U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and senior aides will hold four working sessions over two days with a team of Iraqi officials, headed by Foreign Minister Mohammed Saed al-Sahaf.

Diplomats said no breakthroughs are expected in the talks, which begin Monday.

Annan will head the U.N. delegation at the opening and closing sessions, and may meet privately with al-Sahaf, Eckhard said.

Al-Sahaf is expected to lobby for the lifting of economic sanctions imposed by the Security Council in 1990 after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.

Under U.N. resolutions, sanctions cannot be lifted until Iraq verifies that it has dismantled all weapons of mass destruction.

No arms inspectors have been in Iraq since 1998, when they were pulled out prior to U.S.-UK air strikes.

Other U.N. officials expected to participate in the discussions are Legal Counsel Hans Corell, Jayantha Dhanapala, head of Disarmament Affairs, and Benon Sevon, who heads the U.N. Iraq Program.

On the Iraqi side, al-Sahaf will be joined by former U.N. Amb. Saed Hasan and its new U.N. ambassador in Geneva, Samir al-Nima.

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